U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said entities engaged in legally permissible activities, including those involving digital assets and other novel technologies, should have a clear path to national bank charters. The remarks reinforce a stance Gould has taken consistently since becoming Comptroller, and they land amid an active year for crypto-linked charter approvals at the agency.
Gould's position frames chartering as a neutral process focused on the legality and safety of a firm's activities rather than the novelty of its business model — a framing that has direct implications for the growing number of crypto companies seeking closer integration with the federal banking system.
A Year of Accelerating Approvals
The comments follow a string of concrete approvals under Gould's tenure. On July 10, 2026, the OCC granted final approval for Circle to open First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating as Circle National Trust — following conditional approvals issued in December 2025 for Circle alongside BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. Separately, Erebor Bank, a digital bank backed by tech figures including Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey, became the first de novo bank charter the OCC has granted in four years. Gould has said his agency aims to turn around charter applications within 120 days of submission, a target the OCC says it has met for most requests over the past six months.
Why the Charter Path Matters for Crypto Firms
A national bank or trust charter gives a digital asset firm a federal regulatory home rather than a patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses, and it can open access to payment rails and custody arrangements that are harder to secure without one. The OCC's own announcement of Gould's remarks positions the agency as actively courting firms operating at the frontier of digital finance rather than treating them as a special or riskier category by default.
Related: SEC Sets August 14 Vote to Propose Its Own Crypto Rules
The Debate That Remains
Not everyone reads the OCC's posture as an unambiguous win for the industry: critics of rapid crypto-bank integration have warned that extending traditional banking privileges to digital asset firms could import crypto-market volatility into the federally insured banking system. For now, Gould's comments signal the agency intends to keep approving well-structured applications rather than slow the pace, keeping the OCC as one of the more crypto-accommodating federal regulators alongside the SEC's own push toward a tailored crypto offering framework.
