The Blockchain Association has backed Custodia Bank's Supreme Court petition challenging the Federal Reserve's refusal to grant the Wyoming-chartered digital asset bank direct access to its payment system. According to a Wednesday amicus filing, the industry group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether regional Federal Reserve Banks can deny master accounts to state-chartered institutions that are legally eligible to request access. The dispute centers on the authority regional Fed banks have when deciding which institutions can connect directly to central bank payment infrastructure. Custodia has argued that the Monetary Control Act requires the Fed to make its payment services available to eligible nonmember depository institutions, while lower courts have ruled that regional Reserve Banks retain discretion over whether to approve an application. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is due to respond to the petition by September 11.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced on August 11 that digital asset companies conducting legally permissible activities should have access to the U.S. national banking system. According to the OCC release, Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould stated that the regulator received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including national trust bank applications, and has decided many complete applications within 120 days. Gould emphasized that "America and the OCC are once again open for business," signaling the agency's renewed commitment to revive new bank formation. The activity has already produced one notable result, with a full-service national bank receiving final OCC approval and opening its doors for the first time in five years, signaling growing momentum in new bank formation.
The OCC's current digital asset licensing list contains 13 pending applications from entities planning to offer crypto or other digital asset products. As reported by the OCC, these include 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 July 28 filing represents the newest currently listed application. Several large crypto companies have already moved further through the process, with the OCC conditionally approving applications involving Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos in December 2025, while Coinbase received preliminary conditional approval in April. Gould notes that new entrants drive innovation and widen consumer choice, while entities engaged in legally permissible activities, including digital assets and other novel technologies, should have a path to becoming national banks.
Despite having Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. as America's first federally chartered digital asset bank and the first federal stablecoin issuer, federally regulated trust banks face significant barriers to Federal Reserve payment system access. As reported by Anchorage Digital's Rachel Anderika, nationally-chartered banks like theirs are "boxed out of it, unable to access the Federal Reserve's payment rails directly, because of the way master account access has been administered, not by real legal limitations." The bank was debanked in 2023 by a bank partner of two years on 30 days' notice, creating operational disruptions that nearly wrecked the company. The Federal Reserve's proposed "skinny" payment account would cap reserves, pay no interest, provide no intraday credit, and bar access to Fedwire Securities and FedACH, the network that clears roughly half of all U.S. payments. Anderika argues that federally chartered banks should receive the same Fed services as other member banks, noting that "Fed membership should automatically mean access to Fed payment rails."
Stablecoins have experienced significant growth, expanding from approximately $250 billion in circulation last July to more than $310 billion today, representing a nearly 25% increase in volume. This growth prompted Congress to enact the GENIUS Act last year, which established federal regulation around stablecoins to ensure they can move safely through U.S. institutions with proper BSA, AML, and sanctions programs. The legislation aims to keep the dollar dominant and make it accessible to more people while maintaining regulatory oversight. The OCC also adopted a chartering rule effective April 1 that replaced references to "fiduciary activities" with "operations of a trust company and activities related thereto."
Gould's latest statement indicates that the OCC intends to keep accepting applications from digital asset businesses rather than impose a blanket exclusion. According to the OCC, applicants must still satisfy regulatory, financial, management and supervisory requirements before receiving final authorization, and conditional approval alone does not permit a proposed bank to begin business. The Federal Reserve is drafting new rules to widen access to payment rails, while Congress is weighing legislation and the White House has ordered a full review of Federal Reserve policy around access. The Blockchain Association's Supreme Court filing warns that allowing regional Fed banks discretion over master account access could "provide a blueprint for federal regulators to debank disfavored industries or companies in the future without interference from state regulators." Attention now turns to the 13 pending digital asset applications and firms that already hold conditional approvals, with the FDIC's two-phase process beginning to apply to new insurance applications after August 15.
