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US Bank Lobby Considers Suing OCC Over Crypto Firms’ Banking Charters: Report

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US Bank Lobby Considers Suing OCC Over Crypto Firms' Banking Charters: Report

The Bank Policy Institute is reportedly weighing filing a lawsuit against the OCC over it granting more bank trust charters to crypto firms.

A lobbying group for some of the largest banks that do business in the United States may be heading to court over crypto’s growing access to the U.S. banking system. The Guardian first reported the news, citing a source familiar with the lobby’s thinking.

The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) — whose members include Bank of American, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Santander, and HSBC, among many others — is considering filing a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) over the regulator’s move to grant national trust bank charters to crypto and fintech firms. The BPI has not yet decided whether to proceed with legal action, per The Guardian.

At the heart of the dispute is a question of competitive fairness. Banks argue the OCC’s move grants federal approval to bank-like activities without the same supervision, controls, and safeguards required of traditional banks.

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BPI’s board includes JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon, and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, among other executives of Wall Street’s largest players.

The banking charter pipeline for crypto firms has grown rapidly under OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and sworn in last July.

In December, the OCC granted conditional national trust bank charter approvals to several crypto firms, including BitGo, Ripple, and Paxos. A growing number of other companies have followed since.

Most recently, as The Defiant reported, Crypto.com received conditional approval to charter Foris Dax National Trust Bank, and Revolut and Zerohash became the latest crypto-linked firms to file applications with the OCC in early March.

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The question of crypto firms competing with banks has extended beyond the OCC. Amid the ongoing Senate consideration of a broad crypto market structure bill, JPMorgan’s CEO told CNBC that stablecoin issuers paying interest on customer balances should face the same rules as traditional lenders — a position that has become a central sticking point holding up passage of the CLARITY Act in Congress.

This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.

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Crypto World

Ethereum Foundation Less Than 500 ETH Away From Hitting 70K Staked ETH Goal

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Ethereum, Staking

The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that steers development of the Ethereum ecosystem, staked over 45,000 Ether (ETH) on Friday, bringing the total amount staked to about 69,500 ETH, less than 500 coins shy of the Foundation’s 70,000 goal.

The EF staked the coins in a series of transactions, each consisting of 2,047 ETH, with the total amount staked on Friday valued at over $92.2 million, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

Ethereum, Staking
A portion of the ETH transfers from the Ethereum Foundation’s treasury to the Ethereum Beacon Deposit Contract for staking. Source: Arkham Intelligence

The EF began staking ETH in February as part of its revamped treasury strategy policy announced in June 2025 and will use the yield generated to fund protocol research, development and ecosystem grants. The EF said in its updated treasury policy:

“We are now increasingly moving into staking and DeFi, both to enhance financial sustainability and to support a key application category that is delivering on the promise of permissionless, secure access to base civilizational infrastructure for millions of people today.” 

The foundation staked 2,016 ETH, valued at about $4.1 million in February, followed by 22,517 ETH, valued at about $46.1 million, in March. The EF has locked over $143 million in ETH in the Ethereum Beacon Deposit Contract, according to Arkham Intelligence. 

Ethereum, Staking
The Ethereum Foundation’s crypto holdings and counterparties. Source: Arkham Intelligence

The adoption of a yield-bearing treasury strategy followed pressure from the Ethereum community on the EF to generate income from its treasury to cover expenses, rather than continually selling tokens to fund operations.

Related: Ethereum Foundation sells $10.2M worth of ETH to BitMine in OTC deal

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Vitalik Buterin warns EF staking may force positions in hard forks

Validators, who lock up tokens to secure proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks, can influence which chain is valid in the event of a network hardfork, or a partition of a network into two competing chains.

“If EF stakes, ourselves, this de facto forces us to take a position on any future contentious hard fork,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in January 2025. 

The EF is exploring ways to mitigate the centralization risks posed by its staking activities in the event of a contentious hard fork, Buterin added. 

Magazine: Ethereum’s Fusaka fork explained for dummies: What the hell is PeerDAS?

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