The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the agency’s national trust-bank framework, Interpretive Letter No. 1176 and the conditional charter approval of Protego Holdings Corp. ICBA argues that the OCC exceeded its National Bank Act authority by allowing cryptocurrency and other non-depository firms to obtain federal trust-bank charters without the capital, liquidity, supervision, consumer-protection, Community Reinvestment Act and FDIC deposit-insurance obligations imposed on traditional banks. The dispute has intensified as the OCC says it received 40 applications for new bank charters over roughly 18 months, including 23 tied to digital assets, while the agency’s final rules took effect on April 1. ICBA also opposed Payward’s application, submitted on May 8, and Senator Elizabeth Warren has questioned at least nine crypto-related national trust charters granted since December 2025. The OCC says the rules clarify rather than expand its existing authority. The litigation could affect the legal standing of crypto-focused trust charters and help define how federal banking powers apply to digital-asset firms, with implications for a global stablecoin market that the Bank for International Settlements says could exceed $300 billion by 2026.