Crypto Group Rebukes Warren, Defends OCC Trust Charters

The Digital Chamber sent a letter Tuesday to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould rejecting Sen. Elizabeth Warren's claim that national trust charters granted to several crypto firms violate the National Bank Act. The industry group represents more than 250 crypto-related companies.

In her letter last week, Warren said approvals and applications for federal trust charters for firms including Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity, BitGo and Coinbase flouted the National Bank Act and that some firms “appear to have been organized in response” to the GENIUS Act, a law passed last summer that creates a federal framework for certain stablecoin issuers.

The Digital Chamber countered that Warren misread the statute and the OCC's chartering authority. “The characterization of these approvals as \”apparent violations\” of the National Bank Act misreads both the statute and the OCC's longstanding charter authority,” TDC chief executive Cody Carbone wrote, and the letter urged the OCC to continue reviewing applications from digital-asset firms seeking federal trust status.

Last year the OCC issued conditional approvals for several digital-asset custody firms, including Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. If finalized, those approvals would permit custody of customer assets but would not allow accepting cash deposits or making loans.

The exchange of letters reflects a debate over whether federal trust charters can be used for custody, payments and stablecoin-related services and whether firms must meet the full set of standards that apply to national banks. Lawmakers and regulators continue to negotiate how those activities should be supervised.

The OCC must now review the legal arguments in the letters while it considers pending applications. The regulator's decisions will determine which services federally chartered digital-asset firms may offer and how federal law is applied to new categories of crypto-related financial services.