Crypto Charters: Warren’s War on OCC’s ‘Banking Without Banks’

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In the shadow of a nation teetering on the edge of financial farce, Senator Elizabeth Warren, with the zeal of a latter-day inquisitor, has launched her latest crusade. On May 18, 2026, she penned a missive to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould, accusing his agency of bestowing national trust charters upon nine crypto companies with the recklessness of a monarch distributing titles at a masquerade ball. The deadline for repentance? June 1, 2026.

  • Key Takeaways:

  • Warren, in her role as the Senate Banking Committee’s moral compass, has targeted the OCC for allegedly violating the National Bank Act by granting charters to firms like Coinbase and Ripple, whose business plans resemble traditional banking about as much as a chicken resembles a philosopher.
  • The senator argues that these charters allow crypto companies to engage in non-fiduciary activities-staking, lending, and stablecoin issuance-activities that, in her view, are as out of place in a trust company as a clown at a funeral.
  • Warren demands full records by June 1, including any communications with the Trump family, because, in her world, no financial impropriety is complete without a cameo from Mar-a-Lago.

Warren’s Crusade Against the OCC’s Crypto Charters: A Tale of Regulatory Absurdity

Elizabeth Warren, the indefatigable critic of financial overreach, has once again taken up her pen to decry what she sees as the OCC’s regulatory folly. In her letter, she accuses the OCC of turning the National Bank Act into a mere suggestion, approving charters for companies whose activities bear as much resemblance to traditional trust operations as a kangaroo does to a ballet dancer.

Under federal law, national trust companies are meant to stick to fiduciary activities-acting as trustee, executor, or guardian. They are not supposed to accept deposits, make loans, or engage in the kind of financial acrobatics that crypto companies seem to relish. Yet, according to Warren, the OCC has allowed these firms to operate with the freedom of a cat in a yarn shop.

“Since December 2025, you have approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies that intend to engage in activities as far removed from fiduciary duties as a politician is from honesty,” Warren wrote to Gould. “These companies are crypto banks in all but name, seeking to evade the safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank, like a student skipping class but still expecting to pass the exam.”

The nine firms in question-Ripple National Trust Bank, Paxos Trust Company, First National Digital Currency Bank, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, Bitgo Bank and Trust N.A., Foris DAX National Trust Bank, National Digital Trust Company, Bridge National Trust Bank, and Coinbase National Trust Company-are, in Warren’s view, the financial equivalent of cowboys in a china shop.

Warren points to specific business plans as evidence of this regulatory overreach. Protego’s National Digital Trust Company, for instance, plans to operate a crypto custody platform, a trading platform, a lending and borrowing platform, and an issuer services platform-activities that, according to Warren, are as fiduciary as a game of poker.

“This is regulatory arbitrage at its finest,” Warren declared, “a strategy that gives these firms the privileges of a bank without the obligations, like a cake that lets you eat it too.”

Warren also takes aim at the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin legislation signed into law in 2025. She argues that some charter applicants have structured their operations around this law, but that the GENIUS Act did not amend the National Bank Act’s trust charter provisions. “Any attempt to use the GENIUS Act to justify expanded trust company powers is a misreading of the statute as blatant as a bull in a china shop,” she wrote.

Warren’s document requests are as sweeping as they are detailed. She demands full charter applications, legal analyses, breakdowns of fiduciary versus non-fiduciary activities, and OCC analyses of how the GENIUS Act interacts with the National Bank Act. Most controversially, she requests all communications between OCC officials and President Trump, his family, or anyone employed by or on behalf of the Trump family regarding the charter approvals. The deadline for compliance? June 1, 2026.

The OCC, for its part, has defended the charters as consistent with its authority, citing interpretive letters dating back to 2021. The agency finalized a related chartering rule on March 2, 2026, which Warren claims further expands trust company activities beyond what Congress intended. “This rule is as welcome as a skunk at a garden party,” she remarked.

The approvals reflect a broader shift in federal banking policy under the Trump administration, which has embraced crypto integration with the enthusiasm of a child in a candy store. Warren, a longtime skeptic of crypto’s intersection with traditional banking, cites risks such as market volatility, consumer fraud, and the collapse of firms like FTX and Silvergate as reasons for caution. “Allowing these companies to operate without proper oversight is like giving a toddler a chainsaw,” she warned.

The OCC’s response to Warren’s requests, expected by June 1, will determine whether this regulatory drama escalates further. Until then, the financial world waits with bated breath, much like a audience at a circus, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

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2026-05-19 22:04