Senator: The OCC should not grant national trust charters to cryptocurrency companies like Ripple and Coinbase

On May 18, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) stating that the agency has improperly granted national trust charters to at least nine cryptocurrency companies since December 2025. Elizabeth Warren pointed out that the businesses these companies plan to engage in exceed the limited functions allowed by law for national trust banks, essentially attempting to circumvent the fundamental protections and obligations of banking through crypto banking. It is reported that the companies that have received or conditionally approved include Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity, BitGo, Coinbase, Stripe's subsidiary Bridge, and Crypto.com. The American Bankers Association urged the OCC in February to slow down the approval of related licenses, and Elizabeth Warren warned that this move would weaken consumer protections and pose regulatory arbitrage risks.