The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued three conditional approval letters Friday afternoon for national trust bank applications from Bastion Platforms, Catena Labs and Agora. All three companies focus on digital assets and plan to bring stablecoin issuance, digital-asset custody and related financial services under federal oversight without operating as traditional deposit-taking banks.
The approvals come ahead of the expected January 2027 effective date of the GENIUS Act. Once licensed, the companies will fall under OCC supervision, extending a recent push by digital-asset firms to obtain national trust bank charters. In December, the OCC conditionally approved applications from five cryptocurrency companies on the same day.
Bastion, Agora and Catena target different digital-asset services
Bastion Platforms’ approval covers the conversion of its existing New York trust charter into a national charter. The company received a limited-purpose trust company license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in February 2025 and provides white-label stablecoin services to businesses including Sony Bank.
Bastion Chief Executive Nassim Eddequiouaq said the company initially worked with New York regulators because of the state agency’s experience overseeing stablecoin issuance. Over the past 18 months, he said, the OCC has moved quickly in the area, while the GENIUS Act has brought state and federal requirements closer together.
The charter conversion requires Bastion to maintain $6 million in working capital. Eddequiouaq said the company’s business had been only minimally affected by the U.S. Senate’s rejection of the CLARITY Act last week. In his view, stablecoin regulation now has a relatively clear framework, with further guidance mainly needed for certain specific situations.
Agora co-founder and Chief Executive Nick van Eck said a national trust bank charter would place the company’s stablecoin, custody and trading infrastructure under direct federal supervision and give customers a single service platform. Agora has issued its own AUSD stablecoin since 2024. Its issuing entity, Agora Bermuda Limited, is based in Bermuda and licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Under the OCC’s approval letter, Agora plans to transfer AUSD issuance from Agora Bermuda to the U.S. bank entity once the national trust bank is established. Agora applied to create a new national trust bank and must meet a $10 million working-capital requirement before receiving final approval.
Catena Labs was founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, who also serves as its chief executive. The company describes itself as an “AI-native financial institution” and plans to offer investment management, digital-asset custody and trust services.
Neville said AI agents that use money require a new type of banking platform—one capable of imposing enforceable controls on how those agents use funds while also taking responsibility for holding and managing customer assets.
Catena is also seeking to establish a new national trust bank. The OCC requires the company to prepare $10 million in working capital before the charter can receive final approval.
Trust banks face a different capital profile from full-service banks
Roman Goldstein, a senior director at Klaros Group, said OCC charter standards do not fundamentally distinguish between national trust banks and insured national banks. In general, national trust banks face lower capital requirements because they do not make loans and therefore take on less credit risk.
National trust banks typically do not accept insured deposits or extend loans. That allows them to avoid some of the capital, credit-risk and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) requirements that apply to full-service banks. Javelin Strategy and Research senior analyst for digital assets and cryptocurrency Joel Hugentobler said this does not mean the OCC has lowered its review standards.
The OCC still examines an applicant’s management team, Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering (BSA/AML) controls, corporate governance and ability to execute its proposed business model, Hugentobler said. The OCC’s earlier public rejection of Wise’s national trust bank application also showed that a trust charter is not granted solely on the basis of meeting capital requirements.
Timing and regulatory review remain key questions
Bastion, Agora and Catena submitted their national trust bank applications in March, April and May, respectively, this year. The OCC has previously said it aims to process national bank charter applications within 120 days. The agency has also gone through several rounds of staff reductions in recent months, leaving approval efficiency and the allocation of supervisory resources under continued market scrutiny.
Hugentobler said the concentration of conditional approvals within a relatively short period was more likely to reflect the different risk profile of trust banks compared with traditional banks than a broad easing of regulatory review.
The three companies must still satisfy the capital, governance, compliance and operational conditions set out in their OCC approval letters before receiving final charters. For customers and the market, the next focus will be how Bastion completes its charter conversion, how Agora and Catena establish their new banks, and how stablecoin issuance and digital-asset custody operate under the federal framework.