Zerohash has applied for an OCC national trust bank charter. It is Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure partner for a planned rollout this year of the bank’s retail spot crypto trading on EnullTRADE. It works with several other traditional financial institutions in addition to fintech and nonfinancial apps that enable crypto transactions. The 2025 GENIUS Act sparked crypto firms’ rush to acquire federal trust charters.
The banking industry has responded with acrimony: Stripe’s stablecoin platform, Bridge, won conditional approval from the OCC in February to create a federally chartered national trust bank. Ripple received conditional approval in January, following Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. Crypto.com and Coinbase have applications pending. The Bank Policy Institute is considering a lawsuit against the OCC in response to national trust bank charter approvals for crypto firms, claiming that crypto firms with bank charters could undermine the banking system’s safety and soundness.
In November, the Independent Community Bankers of America urged the OCC to reject Coinbase’s application. Implications for banks: Trade groups’ push against crypto trust charters is a misunderstanding or a distraction.
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