Dakota has applied to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter.
If granted, the charter would allow Dakota to operate as a federally regulated provider of digital asset custody and stablecoin issuance, and to work directly with corporate and institutional clients building products on its infrastructure.
A national trust bank charter permits firms to hold customer assets, provide fiduciary and custody services, and operate across the US under a single federal regulator rather than a patchwork of state-level licences. The charter allows firms to safeguard customer assets, provide fiduciary and custody services, and operate nationwide under a single federal regulator.
Dakota's application follows a wave of similar filings from digital asset companies over the past year. Several digital asset companies have either secured or applied for OCC trust bank charters in recent years, with Circle recently receiving final OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust, which will oversee custody of the reserve assets backing USDC and provide digital asset custody services. In addition, other firms that have announced trust bank ambitions or applications include Ripple, BitGo, Paxos, Crypto.com, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Bridge, Stripe's stablecoin unit.
The renewed interest in banking charters comes as the stablecoin industry enters a new phase of growth, with the global stablecoin market having grown beyond USD 300 billion. Traditional financial institutions are increasingly exploring blockchain-based payments, tokenised deposits, and real-world asset tokenisation.
Rationale and next steps
According to the company, the charter is intended to reduce the number of intermediaries sitting between Dakota's infrastructure and the products built on top of it, with the aim of giving clients more control and a more consistent experience for their own customers. Dakota has framed the filing as a continuation of its existing approach, stating that it was established to address structural obstacles in financial product development, including fragmented state-by-state licensing, compliance processes that are handled periodically rather than embedded into technical systems, and payment rails not originally designed for programmable or automated money movement.
Furthermore, the company said the application does not change any existing services or arrangements for current clients, and that operations continue unaffected while the OCC reviews the filing. The OCC has not publicly indicated a timeline for its decision on Dakota's application.
The application places Dakota among a growing group of digital asset infrastructure providers seeking direct federal oversight as stablecoin issuance and digital asset custody become more integrated into mainstream financial services in the US.
