Bastion, a stablecoin infrastructure provider for enterprises and financial institutions, received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on September 18 to convert its New York trust company into Bastion Platforms National Trust Company.
The federal trust bank charter will allow the company to run stablecoin custody, payment infrastructure, fiat conversion and white-label stablecoin issuance from a single federally regulated entity. Approved activities include fiduciary custodial wallets, conversion between fiat and USDC for custody clients, minting, redemption and issuer services for other regulated stablecoin issuers. Bastion does not issue its own stablecoin, so clients keep their brand and economics.
CEO Nassim Eddequiouaq said: “Stablecoins have moved from emerging technology into core financial infrastructure, and that requires a different standard of trust, governance and regulatory rigor.”
The approval follows Bastion’s New York limited-purpose trust charter in February 2025. The company is partnered with Sony Bank and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures. It also added four directors and advisors with backgrounds at American Express, Morgan Stanley, EY and Optum.
As a national trust bank, Bastion will not accept deposits or have FDIC insurance, must acquire stock from a Federal Reserve bank before commencing operations, and does not automatically gain access to Federal Reserve payment systems. The OCC concluded that the proposed custody, conversion, stablecoin issuance and issuer services are permitted trust-company activities under federal banking law.
The decision is part of a broader charter push shaped by the GENIUS Act. The OCC has received roughly 40 new-bank charter applications over about 18 months, including 23 involving digital-asset activity. Circle received final approval for Circle National Trust on July 10, while BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos were among firms receiving conditional approvals. Researchers estimate the stablecoin market at about $270 billion as of June 2026.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized the charter wave, arguing that some planned activities exceed trust-company powers and that such firms are “effectively crypto banks” seeking to avoid bank safeguards. The OCC disagrees and is treating stablecoin custody and issuance infrastructure as a regulated banking-sector activity.
