What Did the OCC Approve for Bastion?
Stablecoin infrastructure provider Bastion has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate a U.S. national trust bank, moving its custody, payments and stablecoin infrastructure business under direct federal supervision.
The approval, dated September 18, covers Bastion Platforms Trust Company’s conversion into Bastion Platforms National Trust Company. The company submitted its OCC application on March 30.
The new entity would provide stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure and white-label issuance through a single federally regulated institution. It would also be able to provide fiduciary custody for USDC and other digital assets that meet requirements under the GENIUS Act, as well as minting, redemption and conversion infrastructure for enterprise customers.
The charter does not turn Bastion into a conventional commercial bank. The national trust company would not accept deposits or make loans, keeping its activities focused on fiduciary, custody and digital asset services rather than traditional banking.
“Stablecoins have moved from emerging technology into core financial infrastructure, and that requires a different standard of trust, governance and regulatory rigor,” CEO Nassim Eddequiouaq said.
Why Is Bastion Moving From State to Federal Supervision?
Bastion has been building toward a federal structure since obtaining a New York limited-purpose trust charter in February 2025. The company also operates through state money-transmitter licenses and other regulated entities, but an OCC charter can provide one federal supervisory framework for activities that otherwise depend on multiple state regimes.
That structure matters for Bastion because its business is aimed largely at enterprises that want to launch stablecoin products without building the underlying custody, compliance, wallet and issuance infrastructure themselves.
The company does not primarily compete by issuing a consumer stablecoin under its own brand. Instead, it provides infrastructure that allows financial institutions and companies to create branded stablecoin products while Bastion handles much of the technical and operational stack.
Sony Bank is among the companies using Bastion’s infrastructure for its stablecoin plans. Sony also participated in Bastion’s $14.6 million funding round in September 2025 alongside Samsung Next, Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, Hashed and lead investor Coinbase Ventures. The round took Bastion’s total funding to approximately $40 million.
Investor Takeaway
Bastion’s charter application shows how stablecoin competition is moving beyond token market share. Infrastructure providers increasingly want federal supervision because banks and large enterprises may prefer counterparties operating inside the U.S. banking perimeter when outsourcing custody, issuance and payment infrastructure.
Why Are Crypto Firms Seeking National Trust Charters?
Bastion is joining a much larger move toward OCC supervision. Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos received conditional approvals for national trust structures in late 2025, while Coinbase and other digital asset companies have pursued similar federal charters.
Circle has since received final approval for Circle National Trust, while BitGo also operates under a national trust bank charter. The initial wave of OCC approvals for Ripple, Circle and BitGo helped establish the national trust structure as a viable route for crypto custody and stablecoin companies seeking federal oversight.
Other companies are still trying to enter the same regulatory category. Kraken parent Payward applied for a national trust company charter in May, proposing a federally supervised custody and trust business for institutional and retail digital asset clients.
Zerohash has also pursued an OCC charter, although its earlier application was returned as materially deficient before the company submitted another application in August.
What Does the Charter Mean for the Stablecoin Market?
The value of federal trust charters has increased since passage of the GENIUS Act, which created a national framework for payment stablecoins and raised the regulatory requirements around issuance, reserves and supervision.
For infrastructure providers, that creates a commercial advantage in being able to tell institutional clients that stablecoin products can be built through a federally supervised counterparty rather than assembled across several separate service providers.
The charter still requires Bastion to satisfy the OCC’s conditions before beginning operations as a national trust bank. Conditional approval therefore represents a regulatory milestone rather than the final step.
But the direction is increasingly clear. Stablecoin infrastructure is moving closer to the regulated banking system, and companies that once operated mainly through state licenses are competing for federal charters as custody, issuance and settlement become services demanded by banks, fintechs and large corporations.