Circle Will Apply for US Bank Charter Soon, CEO Confirms

It has ambitions to become a crypto bank.

Only three other crypto companies have obtained the federal charter.

Though Allaire did not specify the exact day or time of the upcoming application submission, he said that it would be “hopefully in the near future.”

Ambitions to Become a Crypto Bank

Circle has become a major cryptocurrency company over the years. Its intention to become a crypto bank is not new as it first disclosed its plans last August. Allaire further revealed that the company is in talks with regulators since.

It has discussed a range of topics with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency including the management structure of the banking division of the company. The regulator was particularly interested in the interoperability of the blockchains and the assessment of operational risks.

The regulatory concerns are obvious as the vulnerabilities of such cross-chain bridges were exposed in a recent cyberattack on the Ronin Network, resulting in the theft of over $600 million in cryptocurrencies .

Meanwhile, Circle is also in the process of listing its shares publicly on an American stock exchange. It has already inked a deal with a blank-check company and received a valuation of $9 billion.

Now, it will be one of the very few crypto banks in the United States if it successfully gains the banking charter. Only three other crypto companies, Anchorage Digital, Protego Trust Bank NA and Paxos Trust Company, have obtained at least a preliminary approval for a charter. However, a few other crypto firms have secured state charters.

But the OCC, which oversees the federal banking charter, did not issue any approval for any crypto companies for more than a year now.

“They‘ve been doing a lot of work laying the groundwork for how they’re going to supervise crypto, how theyre going to supervise stablecoin issuers specifically,” Allaire added.