The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stated on Aug. 11 that digital asset companies operating within the law should have a real path to a national bank charter, and Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould used the announcement to renew a broader push for new bank formation. Gould said the OCC has taken in 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including a July 28 filing from Dakota National Trust Bank, and that it is deciding most complete applications within 120 days. “America and the OCC are once again open for business,” Gould said in the release.

OCC Applications Jump After a Decade of Decline

Gould’s statement marked a break from the agency’s posture over the past decade, when few firms bothered applying for a federal charter at all. OCC figures included in the release show that between 2011 and 2014, the agency averaged fewer than four new charter applications a year, with some years seeing none. That stands in sharp contrast to the current pipeline.

The OCC’s public list of digital asset licensing applications currently shows 13 pending requests from firms seeking to offer crypto or other digital asset products, among them Payward National Trust Company, World Liberty Trust Company, Revolut Bank US, PAYO Digital Bank, EDX Trust, Agora National Trust Bank, and Dakota National Trust Bank. 

Dakota’s filing, submitted July 28, is the newest entry on the list. One full-service national bank has already received final approval and opened its doors, the first such approval in five years.

The announcement came a day after the FDIC unveiled its own updated review process for deposit insurance applications on Aug. 10, giving firms a clearer route on the deposit insurance side as well as the charter side. It is the latest in a string of regulatory moves shaping how crypto firms operate in the U.S., and we’re tracking all of it in our ongoing crypto news coverage.

What This Means for Crypto Companies Seeking Bank Status

For crypto firms that have spent years operating as licensed money transmitters or state-chartered trusts, a faster, more predictable path to a national charter changes the calculation on whether to apply at all. Payward, the parent company behind Kraken, already has an application in the queue, as covered in our report on Payward’s national trust bank filing. A clearer 120-day decision window gives companies like it, and the dozen others waiting behind it, a firmer timeline to plan around.

Dakota’s Filing and the OCC’s 13 Pending Applications

Dakota National Trust Bank’s July 28 application is the most recent addition to the OCC’s 13 pending applications, and it will be one of the first tests of how the agency applies its faster review window in practice. Whether Gould’s 120-day target holds for the other applications still waiting, including Revolut Bank US and EDX Trust, will show whether this week’s announcement changes outcomes or just tone.

What this means for you: A national bank charter would let a crypto company operate under one federal license instead of a separate money transmitter license in each state, and it would put that company under the same federal bank regulator, the OCC, that oversees banks like Chase or Citibank.