Andreessen Horowitz-backed OpenReserve has received preliminary conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a full-service national bank. The blockchain-powered banking startup, founded in 2025 by former MoneyLion executives Diwakar Choubey and Richard Correia, aims to build a 24/7 banking platform with a programmable core ledger and native onchain settlement.
According to the OCC's letter, OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital, net of organizational and preopening expenses, and maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 12% during its first three years of operation. Its proposed services include deposits and lending, payments and treasury services, tokenized deposit products, digital asset custody, and foreign correspondent banking. The bank also plans to establish a wholly owned subsidiary for issuing, custodying, converting, and processing payments of U.S. dollar-denominated reserve-backed stablecoins, though the subsidiary has not yet filed an application.
OpenReserve previously raised a $25 million seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Jump Capital, Acrew, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, Clocktower, Quona, AAF Management, and Zero Knowledge Ventures. a16z crypto said it is proud to partner with the team and believes Americans and companies worldwide will benefit from more banking options and the technological progress represented by new banks like OpenReserve.
The OCC decision follows a series of conditional approvals for crypto-focused institutions under Comptroller Jonathan Gould, who has supported a pathway for entities engaging in novel technologies to become federally supervised banks. Since 2025, the OCC has received 40 de novo charter applications and approved 21. The agency has also granted conditional approvals for national trust bank charters to crypto firms including Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle, while Revolut received a similar nod on Wednesday. Before launching, OpenReserve must satisfy OCC preopening requirements, obtain FDIC deposit insurance, and apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock.
