Stripe's Bridge Granted Conditional Approval by the U.S. OCC to Establish a National Trust Bank

ChainCatcher report, according to CoinDesk, Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company under Stripe, announced on Tuesday that it has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank. This means Bridge National Trust Bank will be able to issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage reserve assets under direct federal supervision. This marks a significant step in Stripe’s blockchain payments strategy since its $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge in 2024. Bridge stated that this approval establishes its ability to build digital dollar products within the federal framework for enterprises, fintech companies, crypto institutions, and traditional financial institutions. Bridge claims its system complies with the regulatory standards set forth in the recently passed GENIUS Act. Although the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC have not yet finalized implementing regulations for the Act, the process is underway. Bridge is among an increasing number of companies seeking to build stablecoin products within the federal regulatory framework. Last December, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo received similar conditional approvals from the OCC; Erebor Bank also obtained a conditional national bank charter last October. Bridge submitted its application in October last year, and OCC records show it received approval last week. Currently, Bridge provides stablecoin issuance infrastructure support for products such as Phantom’s CASH and MetaMask’s mUSD through Stripe’s Open Issuance platform. The OCC has not yet announced a timeline for final approval.