Stripe-owned Bridge has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate as a federally chartered national trust bank, paving the way for expanded stablecoin services.
The company said the regulator’s nod would allow it to operate stablecoin products and services under direct federal oversight once fully approved, including digital asset custody, stablecoin issuance and reserve management.
“Our compliance framework already positions Bridge to be GENIUS ready,”
Said Bridge, referring to the GENIUS Act, adding:
“Now achieving a national trust bank charter will provide our customers the regulatory backbone they need to build with stablecoins confidently and at scale.”
Bridge applied for the charter in October and was granted conditional approval on Feb. 12, after being acquired by Stripe in 2025 in a $1.1 billion deal aimed at expanding stablecoin payment infrastructure.
The approval places Bridge among several crypto-aligned firms pursuing national trust bank charters, following conditional approvals from the OCC for BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, Circle and Ripple.
However, the American Bankers Association urged the OCC to slow approvals, warning in a letter that companies could use national trust charters to bypass oversight while GENIUS Act rules remain unclear.
“ABA strongly encourages OCC to be patient, not measure its application decisioning progress against traditional timelines, and allow each charter applicant’s regulatory responsibilities to come fully into view before moving a charter application forward,”
Said the letter, as lawmakers continue debating stablecoin yield, tokenised equities and market structure reforms ahead of a potential Senate vote.