Bastion Clears Hurdle for Federal Trust Charter, Joining Crypto Bank-Charter Race

Stablecoin infrastructure provider Bastion has moved a step closer to operating under direct federal supervision after securing preliminary conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter. The decision, disclosed by the company on Friday, would layer OCC oversight on top of the state-level licenses Bastion already holds and consolidate its stablecoin custody, payments, and issuance work inside a single federally regulated entity.

The proposed institution, to be licensed as Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, would not function like a conventional commercial bank. Bastion said the chartered trust bank could not accept deposits or make loans, a boundary that keeps the structure closer to a regulated custody and payments utility than a full-service lender. The distinction matters for a sector where regulators are scrutinizing how reserve-backed tokens are held, moved, and redeemed.

If the charter process reaches final approval, the federally regulated entity would support stablecoin custody and wallet solutions, payment infrastructure, and white-label stablecoin issuance. Bastion said the arrangement would give enterprises a single federally regulated counterparty rather than a patchwork of state licenses, covering fiduciary custody of USDC and other GENIUS Act-compliant digital assets, along with minting, redemption, and conversion between stablecoins and fiat for white-label clients. The company issues no stablecoin of its own, so clients keep their brand and their economics.