Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a formal letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould on May 18, 2026, accusing the agency of violating the National Bank Act by granting national trust charters to nine crypto companies — and ordering it to hand over all related records, including any communications involving the Trump family, by June 1.
Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, argues the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved charters for firms whose actual business plans — custody platforms, staking, lending, stablecoin issuance — fall far outside the narrow fiduciary activities that national trust law permits. "These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank," she wrote to Gould.
The nine firms named
The letter identifies all nine charter recipients approved since December 2025: Ripple National Trust Bank, Coinbase National Trust Company, Paxos Trust Company, First National Digital Currency Bank (Circle-linked), Fidelity Digital Asset Services, BitGo Bank and Trust N.A., Foris DAX National Trust Bank (Crypto.com), National Digital Trust Company (Protego), and Bridge National Trust Bank (Stripe).
Warren cited specific language from their applications. Protego's filing describes a crypto custody platform, a trading platform, and a lending and borrowing platform. Coinbase's application states it will enable custody clients to access staking, financing, and trading services, and will explore payment products. Neither description fits the trustee, executor, administrator, or guardian functions that define a national trust company under the National Bank Act.
What a national trust charter actually grants
A national trust bank charter gives a firm a federally chartered foothold inside the banking system without requiring FDIC membership. These entities can offer custody and limited banking services under OCC supervision while sidestepping the federal deposit insurance requirement, Community Reinvestment Act obligations, and Bank Holding Company Act restrictions that apply to full-service national banks. Warren's position is that the OCC is permitting these firms to claim the benefits of a bank charter without the accompanying obligations — "regulatory arbitrage" is how her letter frames it.
"Allowing national trust companies to act like full-service national banks, while evading the suite of restrictions, safeguards, and obligations that apply to full-service national banks, would pose clear risks to consumers, create conflicts of interest, undermine the separation of banking and commerce, and threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system," Warren wrote.
The Trump angle
Among Warren's document requests is a demand for all emails, text messages, meeting summaries, and call transcripts between OCC officials and President Trump, his immediate family, or anyone employed by or on behalf of the Trump family, related to any of the nine charter approvals. The request connects to a parallel dispute: World Liberty Financial, a crypto company cofounded by Trump and his sons, submitted its own OCC application for a national trust bank charter in January 2026. Warren has separately pressed Gould to pause that review until Trump divests from the company; the OCC declined.
The CLARITY Act connection
Warren's letter landed the same week the CLARITY Act — the Senate's crypto market structure bill — was advancing toward a floor vote, with Warren's own amendments already filed. The letter is a separate, executive-branch escalation: while the legislative fight focuses on statutory rules for crypto firms, the OCC challenge targets the regulatory action that has already happened, arguing the agency acted without waiting for Congress to act at all. Warren also disputes the argument that the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin bill signed in 2025, implicitly expanded trust charter powers. Her letter says the GENIUS Act did not amend the National Bank Act's trust provisions, and that reading it otherwise misreads the statute.
The OCC has not issued a public response to the May 18 letter. None of the nine named firms issued statements in response to the letter's release.
Source: Warren letter to OCC Comptroller Gould, May 18, 2026, via Senate Banking Committee (banking.senate.gov); CoinDesk, May 19, 2026; Bitcoin.com, May 19, 2026.