Circle has just become a bank.
The OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) has officially granted the stablecoin issuer a full license to pursue its national bank charter. Under this, First National Digital Currency Bank will now be operating as Circle National Trust.
Banking With Circle
Circle first received the provisional approval last December, when a series of other stablecoin issuers and fintech companies such as Paxos also received updates about their OCC national trust license applications.
This now means Circle can custody its USDC stablecoin reserves, as well as potentially offer other custody services to institutional clients as per the license’s terms.
Circle is the only stablecoin issuer in the U.S. to be both a public company on the NYSE and have its own national bank.
Circle has long stated that it wants to be the most regulatory-compliant and transparent stablecoin on the market.
As part of its mission to ensure price stability, liquidity, and security, Circle has targeted “deep connectivity” to the banking system.
As per Circle co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire, having federal oversight establishes a “new standard for transparency, governance, and scale for Circle’s infrastructure”, which is indeed growing at an exceptional rate.
A Rising Tide
Circle’s performance is having a positive impact on the broader ecosystem.
MassPay, a major global payout orchestration platform, has enjoyed massive growth, notably after joining the Circle Payments Network (CPN) and partnering with Coinbase for stablecoin-based payouts.
Ran Grushkowsky, CEO of MassPay, told Stablecoin News that stablecoins have “graduated from crypto experiment to financial infrastructure”.
He adds that now, platforms handling payouts are looking for cheaper, faster methods, and that stablecoin rails are the answer.
Recently, Circle deepened its presence in Africa with a strategic investment in one of the region’s leading fintech/payments firms, Flutterwave.
It’s a sign of growing demand, and stablecoin-powered neobanks could be here to stay, especially as crypto debit cards and e-commerce spending solutions continue to grow.
USDC is the top stablecoin for crypto card spending as it currently commands over 55% of that market, far outpacing Tether’s (USDT) 33.8%.
