Circle wins OCC approval to open federal trust bank for USDC
Circle President Heath Tarbert says the company is focused on long-term execution as new stablecoin competition, revenue-sharing models and bank concerns over deposit outflows pressure margins and the stock.
Circle received final approval on July 10 from the OCC, the U.S. national bank regulator, to establish Circle National Trust under federal supervision, a move the company described as a major step for USDC and its regulated infrastructure. In a July 14 FOX Business interview, Circle President Heath Tarbert said the company is playing the “long game” despite a sharp share-price decline from a post-IPO peak near $260 toward the low $60 range, arguing that execution on a full-stack internet financial platform around USDC should drive value over time. He cited roughly $73 billion of USDC in circulation and native support across 34 blockchains as competitive advantages. The comments came as Open Standard launched Open USD with backing from more than 140 businesses including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY and Coinbase, offering fee-free minting and redemption plus reserve earnings after a management charge. Analysts including Mizuho and JPMorgan have warned that new revenue-sharing models could pressure Circle’s margins and reserve income, while lenders have separately warned that stablecoins could drain $500 billion from bank deposits as tokenized dollars gain wider use.
- OCC: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. national bank regulator.
- national trust bank: A federally supervised trust institution chartered by the OCC.
- reserve earnings: Income generated from the assets backing a stablecoin, which can be shared among issuers, distributors or partners.