Coverage: weekly note · Information to 24 August 2026
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TGB Weekly Research Note · 24 August 2026
Over half of the OCC's 40 recent charter applications involve digital assets, and its trust-bank approvals are built around custody, settlement and stablecoin reserves.
The desk view
On 19 August 2026 the Comptroller of the Currency said 23 of the 40 charter applications received in about 18 months involve digital asset activity. The OCC's own fact sheet shows 22 applications in 2026 as of 5 August, against 1 in 2024. Its 2026 digital-asset approvals are national trust banks centred on custody, transfer and settlement; one plans to issue dollar stablecoins and manage reserves for other issuers. Our reading is that the charter is becoming a way to put a regulated balance sheet and a trusted ledger under payment flows rather than to gather deposits and lend. The OCC aims to have a final GENIUS Act rule out by November. That suggests competition for stablecoin issuance and settlement will increasingly run through federally chartered entities.
A charter pipeline rebuilt around digital assets
The OCC said on 11 August 2026 that it had received 40 de novo applications in the last 18 months, including applications for national trust banks. Its fact sheet records 18 applications in 2025 and 22 in 2026 as of 5 August, a total of 40 since the start of 2025. The 2025 total alone matched the combined total for 2021 to 2024. Approvals rose from 7 in 2025 to 14 in 2026 as of 5 August.
On 19 August 2026 the Comptroller said 23 of the 40 involve some form of digital asset activity, which he called an eightfold increase on the four years of the previous administration. He added that integrating payment stablecoins into business plans is becoming ordinary course. The signal is less about crypto firms in isolation than about what new entrants now expect a charter to do.
OCC de novo charter applications, number
Source: OCC, De Novo Bank Charters fact sheet, 11 August 2026.