Circle Internet Group Inc. received approval to start a national digital-currency trust bank to support its stablecoin business, widening its remit to include institutional custody services while consolidating oversight under a single federal trust charter.

The stablecoin issuer behind the USDC token said on Friday that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted it permission to establish what will eventually be the Circle National Trust. The new entity allows the company to custody assets, among other things, under OCC oversight. Circle shares surged 11% in pre-market trading.

National trust banks offer services like the custody of assets and handling of settlements but don’t operate like full retail banks, meaning that they don’t take deposits from customers, for instance. The charter allows Circle to function under OCC oversight rather than a state-by-state regulatory framework.

“OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the US financial system,” Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and and chief executive officer of Circle, said in a press release.

The OCC granted Circle and a handful of other digital-asset firms conditional approval for national trust bank charters at the end of last year, which at the time marked another step by the Trump White House to embrace the once-fringe industry. President Donald Trump last year also signed the Genius Act, the first first federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, which expanded the authority of the OCC to include non-bank payment stablecoin issuers like Circle.

Stablecoins, digital tokens designed to hold a steady value against an asset like the dollar, have become a crucial component of crypto markets. Their overall market value has swelled to above $310 billion, with Morningstar recently projecting that they could reach $1.45 trillion in circulation by 2035 — driven by use cases like cross-border payments and remittances.

— By Vildana Hajric (Bloomberg News)