Community bankers sue the OCC to shut crypto’s side door into banking

A US community bank group has sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, calling trust charters for crypto firms a backdoor into the banking system¹. The Independent Community Bankers of America’s complaint names the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould, and seeks to invalidate the March 2026 chartering rule along with OCC Interpretive Letter 1176⁷. Coverage of the filing frames it as a challenge that reaches Coinbase and Circle⁷, and as an attempt to block crypto’s side door into banking⁴.

Among the firms that have applied for or received OCC licences is World Liberty Financial, which has close ties to Donald Trump^1,3. OpenReserve Bank, backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, is also named in the reporting¹. The applications are at different stages, and the materials reviewed do not confirm the status of every one².

Why it matters to investors

The dispute is about the perimeter of banking. The objection is to the regulator granting trust bank charters to firms that intend to use them to conduct other business⁶, which incumbents characterise as a side door rather than the front entrance⁴. Senator Elizabeth Warren has separately called the approvals illegal, a charge the industry disputes^3,4. The complaint itself is against the regulator and its comptroller rather than against the chartered firms⁷, and it asks the court to act on the rule rather than on any single application². One account places the fight inside a wider argument about an uneven, K-shaped economy and the regulator’s willingness to charter firms that want the licence for other purposes⁶.

The queue is still forming while the case is argued. Modern Treasury has applied to establish a national trust bank, saying its existing software and payment services will continue separately and that nothing changes for its customers, bank partners or stablecoin arrangements⁵. Each new filing rests on the same authority the lawsuit is trying to remove^5,7.

What to watch

The targets of the suit are the clearest markers: the March 2026 chartering rule and Interpretive Letter 1176, both of which the complaint asks the court to invalidate⁷. A ruling against the OCC would reach the pending applications together, because they share that legal basis^2,7. In the meantime new filings keep arriving, Modern Treasury’s among them⁵, and the political track runs in parallel through Warren’s objection and the industry’s rebuttal^3,4.