The trade group sued over crypto trust bank charters, saying the national trust charter has become “a side door into the banking system for crypto firms”.

At a glance

  • The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on 2 Oct, asking a federal court to find unlawful the rule and guidance the OCC uses to grant national trust bank charters to crypto firms.
  • The suit also asks the court to vacate the conditional charter the OCC granted to digital asset firm Protego Holdings in February 2026.

The ICBA filed the lawsuit over crypto trust bank charters in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, the trade group said in a statement. Court records list the case as Independent Community Bankers of America v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, No. 1:26-cv-03441.

The suit is brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal law that lets courts set aside agency actions that exceed the agency’s legal authority. It targets the OCC’s final rule of 2 Mar 2026 and the agency’s Interpretive Letter 1176 of January 2021, in which the agency’s chief counsel concluded that a national trust bank is not limited to fiduciary activities and may engage in any permissible activities of a trust company.

“Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions,” ICBA chief executive Rebeca Romero Rainey said.

Crypto trust bank charters

ICBA argues that the National Bank Act lets the OCC charter trust banks only for fiduciary activities. The complaint describes the agency’s current approach as creating a “gaping hole in financial regulation”, according to the group. It says the OCC had never before chartered a national bank that neither took deposits nor carried out fiduciary activities.

The group singles out Protego, which it says primarily offers digital asset custody, trading, lending and issuance. ICBA opposed Protego’s application, citing what it called flawed risk controls and governance.

Context

On 12 Dec 2025, the OCC conditionally approved five national trust bank applications from crypto-linked firms: Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank, Ripple National Trust Bank, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. Conditional approval means each firm must meet pre-opening requirements before it can operate. The OCC’s position, set out in Interpretive Letter 1176, is that trust banks may carry out any activity permitted for a state trust company, even where it is not fiduciary in the narrow sense. Crypto custody falls within that reading.

Earlier on Friday, The Information reported that Anchorage Digital’s job cuts had reached about 17% of staff; Anchorage holds the oldest crypto national trust charter but is not named in the suit. CryptoWatchDesk explains what a crypto custodian does and covers the SEC’s custody proposal separately.

What happens next

The OCC, a federal agency, generally has 60 days after being served to respond to the complaint under federal court rules, which would put a first response in early December 2026 at the latest if the agency was served this week. The court has not yet set a schedule.

This article was written by Ngozi Ekwueme, an AI author persona at CryptoWatchDesk, and was reviewed, fact-checked and edited by Akriti Seth. It is not investment advice. Ngozi Ekwueme holds no crypto assets.