Senator Elizabeth Warren Demands OCC Justify Crypto Trust Charters for Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, and More

Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould questioning the national trust company charters granted to nine crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, and BitGo.

Warren argued the firms look more like crypto banks than narrow trust companies. She wants the OCC to explain why they qualify under the National Bank Act.

The letter also asked for records of communications between the OCC and President Trump or his family members related to the chartering decisions.

The window to lead on digital assets won’t stay open forever. Europe isn’t waiting—and neither is China.

I’ve spent years building the Clarity Act so America doesn’t have to play catch up. We must act now.

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) May 19, 2026

The list of firms under scrutiny reads like a who’s who of institutional crypto infrastructure. Coinbase runs the largest U.S. exchange.

Ripple is building cross-border payment rails. Circle issues USDC, the second-largest stablecoin.

Paxos runs stablecoin and tokenization platforms. Fidelity Digital Assets is the crypto custody arm of one of the world’s biggest asset managers.

BitGo provides institutional custody and settlement.

Warren’s core claim is that some of these business plans go beyond custody into payments, lending-adjacent activity, and stablecoin operations. That, she argues, pushes them past what a narrow trust charter is supposed to cover.

The Block reported on the scope of the challenge:

According to The Block: The Block reported that Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over national trust company charter approvals tied to crypto firms. The article said Warren highlighted approvals involving Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, BitGo, and Coinbase.

Those are major exchange, custody, stablecoin, and payments names trying to operate under federally supervised trust structures. That makes the letter a direct challenge to a path large crypto firms have used to move closer to U.S. banking supervision.

The policy fight is about whether that charter path is a narrow custody framework or a way for crypto firms to move closer to bank-like activities without going through a full national bank process. The Block reported on May 19, 2026 that Warren criticized the OCC over crypto trust charters.

The Block said Warren highlighted approvals involving Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity, BitGo, and Coinbase. CoinDesk separately reported that Warren sent a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould questioning the charters of nine crypto firms.

CoinDesk said Warren argued the firms look more like crypto banks than narrow trust companies.

The fight matters because the trust-charter route is how major crypto companies have moved toward federal supervision without becoming full commercial banks. Killing or narrowing that path would force firms back into the state-by-state patchwork that slows institutional adoption.

CoinDesk framed the letter as a direct challenge to the OCC’s judgment:

According to CoinDesk: CoinDesk reported that Warren sent a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould questioning the charters of nine crypto firms. The article said Warren argued the companies are using narrower trust-bank charters even though some business plans involve custody, payments, lending-adjacent activity, and stablecoin operations.

CoinDesk also reported that Warren asked for records of communications between the OCC and President Trump or his family members about chartering firms. That puts new pressure on the federal route crypto companies have used to make custody and stablecoin infrastructure more institutionally acceptable.

CoinDesk said Warren argued the firms look more like crypto banks than narrow trust companies. CoinDesk said Warren asked for records of communications involving the OCC and President Trump or his family members around chartering firms.

FinanceFeeds reported that Warren questioned whether the companies may be operating beyond the narrow activities allowed for national trust companies under the National Bank Act. Coinbase announced on April 2, 2026 that it received conditional OCC approval to charter Coinbase National Trust Company.

The industry has a clear answer on the record. Coinbase announced on April 2 that its conditional OCC approval would create Coinbase National Trust Company, a federally supervised entity for custody and market infrastructure.

Coinbase said the charter would not make it a commercial bank, would not involve retail deposits, and would not involve fractional reserve banking.

That distinction is the entire argument. A national trust company holds and safeguards assets under federal oversight.

It does not lend against customer deposits or create money through leverage. Warren wants to blur the line between that framework and full-service banking to make the charter approvals look reckless.

Three key trends I am increasingly excited about… 1: Our industry has started caring much more about the security and reliability of the infrastructure, standards and oracles/dependencies that it is built on top of.

This shift in focus towards security is already massively…

— Sergey Nazarov (@SergeyNazarov) May 19, 2026

Warren has been the loudest Senate voice against crypto-friendly regulation for years. The political context here is straightforward.

The OCC under the current administration has opened a door that crypto firms spent a decade trying to walk through. Warren wants it shut.

Whether the OCC responds with the documentation she requested or pushes back will shape the next chapter of the federal charter debate. For now, the approvals stand, and firms like Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple are building under federal supervision.

The crypto industry is better off with more federal oversight, not less. Trust charters give regulators direct visibility into how these firms operate.

Pulling the ladder away would push activity offshore or back into the regulatory gray zone that Warren claims to oppose.

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