Bastion says OCC granted preliminary conditional US trust bank approval

Bastion said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval for a US trust bank charter. Licensed as Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, the proposed bank will offer stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure and white-label issuance from a single federally regulated entity. The charter would add federal supervision from the OCC to the state licenses Bastion already holds, according to a Friday news release. The proposed bank could not accept deposits or make loans, distinguishing it from a conventional commercial bank. Bastion CEO Nassim Eddequiouaq said stablecoins had moved from emerging technology into core financial infrastructure and therefore required a different standard of trust, governance and regulatory rigor. The company has been building toward federal supervision since acquiring its New York trust charter in February 2025. Cointelegraph reported in September 2025 that Bastion had raised $14.6 million in a funding round led by Coinbase Ventures. Sony, Samsung's investment subsidiary, Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm and crypto venture capital firm Hashed participated in that round. Ripple has received conditional approval for a similar charter, while Circle and BitGo have received final approval. Payward, the parent of Kraken, crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash and payments company Block have also submitted applications, according to Cointelegraph.