Banking

The OCC has conditionally approved five crypto firms — Ripple, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, and Paxos — to become national trust banks, advancing the integration of digital assets into U.S. federal banking.

JPMorgan Chase abruptly closed Strike CEO Jack Mallers’ accounts, citing “concerning activity,” reigniting crypto debanking fears amid the bank’s ongoing Epstein controversies.

The OCC has clarified that U.S. national banks may hold crypto on their balance sheets to pay blockchain network fees and test crypto platforms.

SoFi has become the first U.S. national bank to offer retail crypto services, launching its SoFi Crypto platform to let customers buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin directly in their accounts, with full access for all 12.6 million members expected by the end of 2025.

Nordea announced it will offer its customers access, from December 2025, to a synthetic exchange-traded product with Bitcoin as the underlying asset.

SoFi reaffirmed its plans to launch Bitcoin and crypto trading later this year.

Japan is reportedly considering allowing domestic banks to trade and hold assets like Bitcoin.

Charles Schwab reported a 90% year-over-year increase in visits to its crypto platform, with clients now holding about 20% of all U.S. crypto ETPs.

U.S. Bank is further jumping into the bitcoin and broader crypto space with a new money movement division.

Galoy founder and CEO Nicolas Burtey wants to help more borrowers use bitcoin as collateral for loans while introducing open-source software into the traditional banking stack.