Bastion, the stablecoin infrastructure provider for enterprises and financial institutions, said on September 18 that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted it preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter. The approval, disclosed in a company statement, adds federal supervision to the state licenses Bastion already holds and lets the firm run stablecoin custody, payments and issuance from a single federally regulated entity.
One Federally Regulated Entity
Bastion will operate under the charter as Bastion Platforms National Trust Company. The firm said it will offer stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure and white-label issuance through that one entity, giving enterprises a federally regulated counterparty rather than a patchwork of state licenses. That includes fiduciary custody of USDC and other GENIUS Act-compliant digital assets, plus minting, redemption and conversion between stablecoins and fiat for white-label clients. Bastion issues no stablecoin of its own, so clients keep their brand and their economics.
From a New York Charter to Federal Oversight
The milestone follows a path Bastion began in February 2025, when it acquired its New York limited-purpose trust charter. The conditional approval places the company among a small group of firms cleared to seek a national trust bank charter, a category the OCC has signaled it is opening to digital asset firms. Chief executive Nassim Eddequiouaq framed the move as a shift in how institutions reach stablecoins: “Stablecoins have moved from emerging technology into core financial infrastructure, and that requires a different standard of trust, governance and regulatory rigor.”
New Leadership and Backers
Alongside the regulatory news, Bastion named four new advisors and directors with institutional payments and compliance backgrounds, including former American Express and Morgan Stanley executives. President and chief operating officer Caroline Friedman said the hires bring “the payments, risk, compliance and governance standards inside the institutions our clients come from.” Bastion is already partnered with Sony Bank and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures. Its push mirrors a broader race among digital asset firms, including Block’s application for a national trust charter, to win bank-style charters.
Why It Matters
For enterprises, the charter turns Bastion into a single regulated gateway for stablecoin programs, meeting the standards that their own regulators, auditors and risk committees expect. The approval is a step toward folding stablecoins into the same supervisory framework that governs traditional banks, and toward a market where demand is growing faster than the number of providers that can meet enterprise-grade regulatory and operational standards.
