- The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC over crypto-related national trust bank charters.
- It argues that the OCC exceeded its authority by making trust charters more accessible to cryptocurrency firms.
Small US lenders have taken a federal banking regulator to court over a rule that makes it easier for cryptocurrency firms to obtain national trust bank charters.
According to the announcement, The Independent Community Bankers of America filed the lawsuit on Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The group says the OCC exceeded its legal authority and gave crypto firms an unfair advantage.
The ICBA, which represents banks with less than $10 billion in assets, wants the OCC to revoke the rule and related guidance. The group argues that the move grants crypto firms the credibility of a federal charter without imposing the same capital, liquidity, supervision, and deposit-insurance obligations that community banks face.
In the recent past, US regulators have granted conditional national trust bank charters to Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos, giving the crypto firms federal recognition and a direct presence in the banking system.
ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms.
Trust banks operate under a narrower mandate than full-service banks and typically do not offer FDIC-insured retail deposit accounts. That distinction sits at the heart of the dispute: whether trust charters are a lawful path for certain crypto activities or an end run around the rules that govern traditional banking.
A Crowded Field of Crypto-linked Charters
The push for national trust charters has revived the pipeline of new banking names after a long quiet stretch.
Last month, the OCC also granted a full national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain-focused lender backed by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.
The charter approvals have drawn political scrutiny. World Liberty Financial, a firm partly owned by President Donald Trump and his family, received a trust charter that sparked criticism from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.
She accused the agency of enabling presidential conflicts of interest and wrote on X that the charter gives the Trump family “a new way to profit.” The Bank Policy Institute, a large-bank trade group, said it backs innovation inside the regulated banking system but warned against uneven rules.
The case asks the court to decide whether the OCC exceeded its authority under the National Bank Act when it opened the trust charter door to crypto firms. A ruling against the regulator could force it to unwind recent approvals or tighten the criteria for future applications.
A ruling for the OCC would reinforce the trust charter as a viable on-ramp for crypto firms that do not take insured deposits.