Stripe-owned Bridge Gets Conditional OCC Approval to Operate as a National Trust Bank

TLDR

• Stripe-owned Bridge has received conditional OCC approval to operate as a national trust bank
• The charter would allow Bridge to issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage reserves under federal oversight
• Bridge applied for the charter in October 2024; the OCC signed off on Feb. 12, 2026
• Other firms including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets received similar approvals in December
• The American Bankers Association has urged the OCC to slow approvals until GENIUS Act rules are fully clarified

Stripe’s stablecoin platform Bridge has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a national trust bank.

The approval was signed off by the OCC on Feb. 12, 2026, according to agency records. Bridge applied for the charter back in October 2025.

The charter, once fully approved, would allow Bridge to issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage stablecoin reserves. All of this would happen under direct federal oversight.

Stripe acquired Bridge in 2024 for $1.1 billion. The deal was part of Stripe’s push into blockchain-based payments.

Bridge currently powers stablecoin issuance for products like Phantom’s CASH and MetaMask’s mUSD. It does this through Stripe’s Open Issuance platform.

The company also said its compliance systems already meet the standards set out by the GENIUS Act. That law, passed in July 2025, is designed to regulate stablecoin issuers at the federal level.

Federal regulators including the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC have not yet put the specific GENIUS Act rules into effect. They are currently working through that process.

A Growing List of Approvals

Bridge is not alone. In December 2025, the OCC granted similar conditional approvals to Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo.

Erebor Bank also received a conditional national bank charter back in October 2025. The trend shows a growing push by crypto firms to operate under federal banking frameworks.

Pushback From Traditional Banks

Not everyone is on board with the pace of these approvals. The American Bankers Association (ABA) sent a letter to the OCC on Wednesday urging it to slow down.

The ABA said the rules under the GENIUS Act are still unclear. It warned that national trust charters could allow crypto companies to sidestep oversight by US financial regulators.

The group asked the OCC to let each applicant’s full regulatory responsibilities become clear before moving applications forward.

The OCC has not announced a timeline for when Bridge’s approval will become final.

White House officials are also still in talks with crypto and banking industry representatives over stablecoin yield rules. That issue, along with tokenized equities and conflicts of interest, could affect upcoming Senate votes on broader digital asset legislation.

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