The US crypto "banking" era begins: Five giants approved for federal licenses, shaking up trillion-dollar settlement rights

Author: Conflux

The five licenses handed over by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are welding the world’s largest financial system with the cutting-edge digital asset world.

Among them, five core crypto institutions—including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos—have officially obtained or been approved to upgrade to nationwide trust bank licenses.

This marks that the crypto giants, which dominate the transfer of trillions of dollars in assets, have collectively shifted from the fringe to “federally-backed banking infrastructure.”

A transformation aimed at **seizing the future digital cash issuance and settlement rights—“licensed banking” transformation—**is now erupting at the intersection of Wall Street and Crypto Valley.

Strategic Elevation of a Single License

For crypto companies, this National Trust Bank Charter is far more valuable than any previous state-level license. It signifies:

• Federal oversight, unified rules: Direct regulation by OCC, eliminating the regulatory fragmentation of the 50 U.S. states “each blowing their own horn.”
• Access to the “heart”: Direct connection to the Federal Reserve’s clearing networks (such as Fedwire), enabling low-cost, real-time, efficient fund settlement.
• Equal rights and responsibilities: Legally conducting core businesses like digital asset custody and trusts, managing a full range of assets—from cryptocurrencies to traditional stocks—for clients.

OCC Acting Deputy Comptroller Jonathan Gould explicitly stated in the announcement that “new entrants are beneficial to the dynamics, competition, and diversity of the banking system.”

This clearly signals a shift in US regulation: from past scrutiny and containment of crypto innovation to actively integrating it into a new “systemic manageability” framework that is regulated and collaborative.

Why Now?

The key loosening of US financial regulation reflects a triple interplay of policy, market, and endogenous forces—

First, from the breakthrough of spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 to the “innovation-friendly” policy tone of the Trump administration in 2025, the regulatory wind shift is a direct driver.

Last November, OCC clarified in guidance that banks can incorporate cryptocurrencies and blockchain into core operations, clearing the final mental hurdles for mass licensing.

Second, the issuance, custody, and clearing of trillions of dollars in stablecoins have long operated outside the traditional banking system, posing systemic risks like “custody black boxes” and “bank runs.” For institutional funds, bank-level trust and transparency are prerequisites for entry.

Finally, in fierce market competition, whoever can provide a stable, low-cost fiat-to-crypto channel will control the flow of traffic. Bank licenses not only mean the ability to accept deposits and secure stable funding but also serve as a systemic moat against market volatility.

As Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla said, this has brought them into a “new phase of federal regulation.”

The “Banking” Roadmap of the Five Giants

The five companies approved this time precisely target key nodes in the digital asset ecosystem, with clear strategic intentions—

• Circle: Through First National Digital Currency Bank, elevate the compliance model of USDC to bank-level, aiming to make stablecoins the digital dollar settlement layer within the Federal Reserve’s payment system.
• Ripple: Establish Ripple National Trust Bank, aiming to leverage its expertise in cross-border payments to solve XRP’s long-standing compliance issues in global clearing and settlement with a banking identity.
• Paxos & BitGo: Upgrading from state licenses to nationwide licenses, strengthening their “federally-backed” credibility and scope in stablecoin issuance and institutional asset custody.
• Fidelity Digital Assets: As a representative of traditional asset management giants, their transformation signals that Wall Street’s old money also recognizes the need to securely and compliantly manage trillions of traditional capital exposure to crypto assets with a banking identity.

These five institutions are collaboratively drawing a full-chain banking ecosystem blueprint covering “issuance—custody—payment—asset management.”

The core driver of this “banking” wave is the stablecoin market, which has expanded to a massive $300 billion. However, despite such a huge volume of digital cash, most of its clearing and settlement still operate outside the traditional banking system.

The essence of a bank license is to open a compliant, direct “official water pipe” to the Federal Reserve. Once connected, the settlement speed of stablecoins could be shortened from traditional T+1 or longer to near real-time, with costs drastically reduced. This will greatly strengthen the position of compliant stablecoins like USDC and could reshape global capital flow paths.

In the future, owning a bank-grade license will be the foundational support for stablecoins, RWA (Real-World Assets), and complex DeFi applications. The downstream trillion-dollar market will unfold from here.

OCC’s move is not only issuing a “legal pass” for the crypto industry but may also be laying out a key digital infrastructure to extend the US dollar’s global settlement dominance into the digital age. As crypto giants “don their banking cloaks,” a covert battle over future financial sovereignty has quietly escalated.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Markets carry risks; invest cautiously.