ZeroHash Applies for National Trust Bank Charter as OCC Crypto Pipeline Grows

In brief

• ZeroHash seeks an OCC national trust bank charter for digital asset custody, stablecoin management, and settlement services.
• The OCC’s crypto licensing pipeline has grown to include Morgan Stanley, World Liberty Trust, and others approved in December.
• Revolut is separately pursuing a full U.S. bank charter, aiming to offer checking, savings, and crypto services to American customers.

Stablecoin infrastructure firm ZeroHash has applied for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. The application is for ZeroHash to become national trust bank, not a traditional bank—so that means the company isn’t seeking to offer retail banking, lending, deposit accounts, or FDIC insurance on client funds. Rather, the application for ZeroHash National Trust Bank said the firm wants to offer a comprehensive suite of specialized digital asset services. “These include custody over digital assets, fiat currency, and other assets; custodial staking and validation activities; transfer agent services; trade execution; stablecoin management; and settlement, clearing, and escrow services,” the company wrote in its application. Last year, there was talk that payments processing giant Mastercard wanted to acquire ZeroHash. But the deal fell apart, and in January, the firm raised $25o million at a $1.5 billion valuation.

 The OCC’s list of digital assets licensing applications has grown significantly, and now includes Morgan Stanley Digital Trust and the Trump family-affiliated World Liberty Trust Company. In December, the OCC approved banking charters for Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity, and BitGo. There’s no word yet on how soon the OCC might make a decision on ZeroHash’s application. Meanwhile, British fintech firm Revolut has applied for a U.S. banking charter. Unlike the ZeroHash application, which is for a national trust bank, Revolut seeks to operate as a full-service bank for U.S. customers with checking and savings accounts.

“The United States is a key pillar of our global growth strategy,” Revolut said in a press release. “Filing for a national bank charter is a major milestone toward our vision of building the world’s first truly global banking platform.” The firm has expressed interest in offering crypto services. Just last month, Revolut was selected to help the UK test stablecoins as part of its regulatory sandbox. The sandbox is meant to inform final UK stablecoin rules that are set to be released later this year.