On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, Cointelegraph reported that the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) publicly defended the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) after a banking trade group sued the agency over its approval of national trust charters for crypto firms.
CCI chief executive Ji Hun Kim said Monday that the suit, brought by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), represented a “clear attempt to resist national trust charters, payments innovation, and competition in financial services.” The council has supported the OCC’s full and conditional approvals for crypto companies.
The ICBA filed its complaint Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The group alleges the OCC granted bank charters to entities, including crypto businesses, without adequate safeguards and without requiring them to meet standards typically applied to banks.
ICBA president and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a Friday statement that Congress did not intend the national trust charter to serve as a side door into banking. She said crypto firms should not obtain the credibility of a federal charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions.
Under President Donald Trump, the OCC has approved or conditionally approved applications from World Liberty Financial, Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, and Paxos.
Some lawmakers have accused exchanges of seeking to avoid the basic safeguards and obligations that accompany bank status.
The World Liberty approval drew criticism from many lawmakers. It came under OCC head Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee who has led the agency since July 2025. Members of the Trump family co-founded World Liberty, which has been the subject of probes over alleged ties to the royal families of the United Arab Emirates.
Source: Cointelegraph
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