Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is demanding answers from a key banking regulator that has, under the Trump administration, issued national trust bank charters to crypto companies.
“These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank,” Warren said.
Since President Donald Trump’s return to power last year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a division of the Treasury Department, has approved nine national trust banking charter applications for crypto-focused firms.
National trust companies are regulated with less scrutiny than traditional banks, but also are more limited in the services they are allowed to offer. They generally offer fiduciary services—managing assets on another’s behalf—but do not accept customer deposits.
In her letter to the OCC, Warren said those companies “look like crypto banks, not trust companies.”
“The business plans include language that suggests the companies intend to engage in non-fiduciary custodial activities, facilitating payments and lending activities, and conducting stablecoin activities closely related to deposit-taking,” she elaborated.
Warren has requested the OCC provide her with granular information about the crypto banks’ approved bank charters, and whether the banking regulator allows national trust companies to engage in non-fiduciary activities. She also requested copies of all correspondence between OCC officials and President Trump and his family and his associates regarding its approval of crypto-focused national trust applications.
At an event earlier this month, World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff said the company is “in the final stages” of receiving conditional approval from the OCC.
