The Independent Community Bankers of America has sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asking a federal judge to invalidate the regulator's framework for granting national trust bank charters to cryptocurrency firms. Filed on October 2, 2026, the Administrative Procedure Act complaint targets the OCC's March 2, 2026 final rule, National Bank Chartering, and Interpretive Letter No. 1176 from January 2021. The trade group also seeks to revoke the conditional national trust bank approval granted to Protego Holdings Corp.
The ICBA argues that the OCC exceeded its authority under the National Bank Act by approving limited-purpose trust banks that do not take deposits or perform primarily fiduciary activities. The complaint says the agency has approved or conditionally approved 21 national trust banks, at least 13 of them crypto companies. It alleges that uninsured crypto trust banks can avoid Community Reinvestment Act duties, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and deposit insurance, creating a regulatory gap and competitive harm to community banks.
Separately, stablecoin payments infrastructure firm Rain has applied to form Rain National Trust Bank in New York. The proposed entity would custody digital assets and dollars, manage stablecoin reserves, and issue or redeem dollar-backed stablecoins under the GENIUS Act framework. It would not accept deposits or make loans. Former Square Financial Services CFO Brandon Soto is named as proposed president and CEO. Rain joins Block, Modern Treasury, Bastion, Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos in pursuing federal trust structures. The outcome of the ICBA lawsuit could affect the entire OCC charter pipeline.
