Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure arm of Stripe, has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to organize a national trust bank.
Once approved, the charter would allow Bridge “to operate under a unified federal framework consistent with the GENIUS Act,” co-founder Zack Abrams stated on X.
The proposed Bridge National Trust Bank would enable Stripe to issue, redeem, and custody stablecoins within a federally regulated framework, instead of going through state-level money-transmitter licenses.
Such a regulatory infrastructure would enable Bridge “ to tokenize trillions of dollars,” Abrams added.
Stripe acquired Bridge in October last year through a $1.1 billion deal as part of its broader plan to integrate blockchain-based payments into its global merchant network.
The move follows passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which created a new charter category for “permitted payment stablecoin issuers.”
Under the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuers are required to maintain 100% reserves in cash or Treasuries, publish monthly disclosures, and prioritize redemption rights for token holders.
Through the GENIUS framework, the OCC can directly supervise nonbank issuers such as Bridge, a shift long sought by fintech firms. Decrypt reached out to the OCC and Stripe for comment.
The rush for federal bank charters is already underway.
In July, Circle filed for a national trust license to oversee USDC reserves under OCC oversight. Shortly after, Ripple joined the queue, with its own OCC charter bid, seeking dual federal and state oversight.
Paxos followed a month later, positioning itself for national rather than purely state-level licensing. Earlier this month, Coinbase announced it has applied for a National Trust Company Charter..
If granted, Bridge’s license would make it one of the first stablecoin-focused national trust banks in the U.S.
Observers see the filing as a test of Washington’s new approach to digital asset regulation.
Bridge’s OCC charter bid follows a “major inflection point for the stablecoin sector,” showing how “the U.S. is finally moving toward federal recognition of digital dollar infrastructure,” a representative for decentralized exchange aggregator Astros, told Decrypt.
“A federally chartered stablecoin bank under the GENIUS Act will set a precedent for interoperability between on-chain liquidity and off-chain oversight,” they added.
Asked about state-licensed models such as those for other stablecoin issuers like Circle and Paxos, Astros stated that Bridge’s move could be seen as “a complement, not a displacement.”
What matters is how efforts at building “a layered system where regulated institutions and decentralized protocols can safely co-exist,” could consolidate, they said.
Decentralized finance platforms could benefit from “more clarity” at the federal level, allowing them to integrate compliant and high-quality collateral “without sacrificing user autonomy or innovation,” Astros stated.
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