OCC Grants Preliminary Approval to Bastion for National Trust Bank Charter
The newly designated Bastion Platforms National Trust Company is set to provide stablecoin custody services, digital wallets, payment processing systems, and white-label token issuance under unified federal regulatory oversight.
Bastion, a provider of stablecoin infrastructure solutions, announced that it has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate as a US trust bank under a federal charter.
According to a Friday news release, the charter brings federal regulatory oversight from the OCC in addition to the state-level licenses that Bastion currently maintains. However, the prospective banking institution will be prohibited from accepting customer deposits or extending loans, distinguishing it from traditional commercial banking operations.
Operating under the name Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, the entity will provide stablecoin custody services and digital wallets, payment processing infrastructure, and white-label token issuance capabilities, all from a single institution subject to federal regulation.
Stablecoins have moved from emerging technology into core financial infrastructure, and that requires a different standard of trust, governance and regulatory rigor.
Nassim Eddequiouaq, CEO of Bastion
The firm has been working systematically toward securing federal regulatory supervision ever since it obtained its New York trust charter in February 2025.
As Cointelegraph previously reported in September 2025, Bastion successfully completed a $14.6 million funding round spearheaded by Coinbase Ventures, with additional contributions from Japanese technology conglomerate Sony, the investment division of South Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung, the cryptocurrency-focused arm of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and cryptocurrency venture capital firm Hashed.
Ripple has secured conditional approval for a comparable charter, whereas Circle and BitGo have already obtained final approval. Additionally, Payward, which is the parent company of Kraken, along with crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash and payments firm Block, have all filed applications for similar charters, according to previous Cointelegraph reporting.