The Digital Chamber has formally pushed back against Senator Elizabeth Warren’s allegations that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may have violated the National Bank Act by granting national trust charters to a number of crypto firms. In a letter to Comptroller Jonathan Gould, the industry group argued that the approvals are legally sound and represent a long-overdue step toward bringing digital asset activities under federal supervision.
Warren had written to the OCC on May 18, asserting that at least nine trust charters had been approved since December 2025 for companies including Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Stripe and Protego. She claimed some of these firms appeared to be engaging in bank-like activities—such as payment services and stablecoin issuance—without meeting the same standards as full-service banks, potentially breaching the National Bank Act. The senator also linked her concerns to the GENIUS Act, the 2025 stablecoin law, arguing it did not expand the OCC’s charter authority.
The Digital Chamber, which represents over 250 crypto-related entities, countered that the OCC’s charter decisions were based on rigorous review and that each applicant demonstrated its proposed activities fit within the permissible scope for national trust banks. CEO Cody Carbone said Warren’s characterization “misreads both the statute” and the OCC’s longstanding charter powers. The group stressed that firms seeking these charters are voluntarily entering a federal oversight regime rather than avoiding regulation, and that trust charters remain an established tool for fiduciary, custody and related services.
The dispute centers on stablecoin rules and the role of the OCC. The Digital Chamber argued that Congress created a federally regulated stablecoin issuer framework through the GENIUS Act, and it would be inconsistent for the OCC not to use its chartering authority in this space. Meanwhile, the OCC has been developing rules under the GENIUS Act, including a March proposal to exercise authority over certain permitted payment stablecoin issuers. The industry group urged the OCC to continue setting supervisory expectations and to keep the charter process open for digital asset firms that accept federal oversight.
