Sen. Warren Accuses OCC of Granting Illegal Charters to Coinbase, Ripple, and 7 Others

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a formal letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould on May 18, 2026, accusing the agency of illegally granting national trust charters to at least nine crypto companies and demanding full records by June 1. Sen. Warren Accuses OCC of Granting Illegal Charters to Coinbase, Ripple, and 7 Others Key Takeaways - Sen. Warren sent OCC Comptroller Gould a formal letter on May 18, 2026, targeting 9 crypto trust charters including Coinbase and Ripple. - Warren argues the OCC violated the National Bank Act by approving firms conducting non-fiduciary activities like staking, lending, and stablecoin issuance. - The senator set a June 1, 2026, deadline for the OCC to produce charter records and any Trump family communications tied to the approvals. Warren Targets OCC Over Crypto Bank Charters That Allegedly Bypass Federal Safeguards Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, argues the OCC violated the National Bank Act by approving charters for companies whose business plans bear little resemblance to traditional trust operations. The charters cover firms including Coinbase National Trust Company, Ripple National Trust Bank, and Fidelity Digital Asset Services. Under federal law, national trust companies are limited to fiduciary activities such as acting as trustee, executor, administrator, or guardian. They cannot accept deposits or make loans, and they operate without the federal deposit insurance, Community Reinvestment Act obligations, and Bank Holding Company Act restrictions that apply to full-service national banks. Warren insists the OCC has ignored that legal boundary. “Since December 2025, you have approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies that intend to engage in activities that appear to go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law,” she wrote to Gould. “These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.” The senator’s letter identifies the nine approved firms: Ripple National Trust Bank, Paxos Trust Company, First National Digital Currency Bank (linked to Circle), Fidelity Digital Asset Services, Bitgo Bank and Trust N.A., Foris DAX National Trust Bank (a Crypto.com affiliate), National Digital Trust Company (Protego), Bridge National Trust Bank (Stripe-related), and Coinbase National Trust Company. Warren cited specific business plan language as evidence. Protego’s National Digital Trust Company describes plans to operate a crypto custody platform, a trading platform, a lending and borrowing platform, and an issuer services platform. Coinbase’s application states it will enable custody clients to access staking, financing, and trading services, and will explore payment products. None of those activities fall within the statutory definition of fiduciary trust operations, according to Warren. She described the approvals as regulatory arbitrage, a strategy that gives these firms bank-like privileges without the corresponding obligations designed to protect consumers. “Allowing national trust companies to act like full-service national banks, while evading the suite of restrictions, safeguards, and obligations that apply to full-service national banks, would pose clear risks to consumers, create conflicts of interest, undermine the separation of banking and commerce, and threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system,” Warren wrote. The letter also addresses the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin legislation signed into law in 2025. Warren contends some of the charter applicants organized their structures around the new law, but argues the GENIUS Act did not amend the National Bank Act’s trust charter provisions. She says any attempt by stablecoin issuers to use the GENIUS Act to justify expanded trust company powers misreads the statute. Warren’s document requests are detailed and broad. She asked Gould to provide full charter applications, including confidential exhibits, for all nine approved firms and any pending applications. She also requested legal analyses, breakdowns of fiduciary versus non-fiduciary activity volumes, and OCC analyses of how the GENIUS Act interacts with the National Bank Act. The most politically charged request concerns communications. Warren asked the OCC to turn over all emails, text messages, meeting summaries, and call transcripts between OCC officials and President Trump, his immediate family, or anyone employed by or on behalf of the Trump family regarding any of the nine charter approvals. The deadline for all materials is June 1, 2026. The OCC has defended limited-purpose trust charters as consistent with its existing authority for custody, settlement, and digital asset services, citing prior interpretive letters including some dating to 2021. The agency finalized a related chartering rule on March 2, 2026, which Warren says further expands permitted trust company activities beyond what Congress authorized. The charter approvals reflect a broader shift in federal banking policy under the Trump administration, which has taken a favorable stance toward crypto integration in regulated financial institutions. Warren, a longstanding critic of crypto’s intersection with traditional banking, cited risks including market volatility, consumer fraud, and the collapse of crypto-adjacent firms like FTX and Silvergate as reasons for caution. The OCC’s response to her requests, expected by June 1, will determine whether congressional oversight efforts escalate further. Senator Elizabeth Warren Says Crypto Deregulation Could ‘Blow Up’ Wall Street Senator Elizabeth Warren Says Crypto Deregulation Could ‘Blow Up’ Wall Street Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren sounded the alarm, accusing President Donald Trump of chipping away at the Federal Reserve’s hard-earned… Read NowMassachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren sounded the alarm, accusing President Donald Trump of chipping away at the Federal Reserve’s hard-earned…

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