Bastion Gets Early OCC Nod for a National Trust Bank
On September 18, 2026, Bastion said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had granted it preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter. The company announced it on its official site, bastion.com. Bastion
The approval is preliminary and conditional, like a learner's permit. It is not authorization to start trust operations.
Bastion stated the charter adds federal OCC supervision to state licenses it already holds. A trust bank is a narrow federal charter to hold and manage assets for clients, not a full bank that makes loans. The OCC includes Bastion in its Digital Assets Licensing Applications table, which lists pending applications for digital asset products or services.
The Bastion decision follows a sequence that started December 12, 2025, when the OCC announced conditional approval of five national trust bank charter applications. OCC That batch was reported at the time as preliminary approval for five cryptocurrency firms to perform certain banking functions. Bloomberg
That sequence continued through 2026. Coinbase Global received conditional approval for a national trust company charter, as reported April 2, 2026. Reuters Sony Bank received conditional approval to set up a U.S. trust bank to issue dollar-backed stablecoins, tokens designed to stay at one dollar, as reported July 8, 2026. Sony Bank plans to issue those stablecoins in partnership with Bastion Platforms. American Banker A company tied to World Liberty Financial Inc. received preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank, as reported August 14, 2026. Bloomberg
The conditions leave the work with the applicant. The charter is issued and operations begin only after the conditions are met.
The broader context here is the OCC's use of the national trust charter for digital asset business. It gives a federal fiduciary home without a full commercial bank license. For firms with state licenses, the chartered trust bank gets one federal supervisor across states. It does not replace state licenses for work outside the trust bank.
Looking at charter strategy, the Sony Bank detail matters. Its approval is tied to dollar-backed stablecoin issuance with Bastion Platforms as partner, which points to a split. Reserve custody and fiduciary duties sit inside the trust bank, while technology and distribution sit outside. Supervisors will focus on that boundary.
In my view, the cadence is the signal. Five approvals in December 2025, then approvals in April, July and August 2026, then Bastion in September, indicates a standing pipeline rather than isolated orders. For practitioners, the question is no longer whether the OCC will charter digital asset trust banks. It is what operating conditions it attaches, how it supervises reserve and custody controls over time, and how it examines links between federal trust banks and state-licensed affiliates.
