In a recent turn of events, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has given Revolut a preliminary green light to establish a national bank. This in turn would allow the firm to build and operate its own banking infrastructure under U.S. federal banking supervision.
However, the approval is not yet the final authorization to start banking operations. Going forward, Revolut still has to satisfy the OCC’s conditions and obtain approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve.
Still celebrating this milestone, Revolut Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said,
Conditional OCC approval is an important first step towards establishing the proposed Revolut Bank US. It gives us the foundation to build in the world’s largest financial market and bring the full Revolut experience to millions of Americans.
Needless to say, this is good news for the crypto industry because Revolut has also launched its euro-backed stablecoin, EURR. And now, with OCC’s green light, more crypto initiatives might come in. Though EURR has drawn mixed reactions, this is just the start.
Why not all approvals are good news?
That said, Revolut is not the only one riding this boat. As over the past year, the OCC has conditionally approved national trust bank charters for major crypto companies, including Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle.
However, not every approval was good news for the crypto industry. This is because World Liberty Financial getting a conditional green light attracted concerns about possible conflicts of interest.
Yet, OCC chief Jonathan Gould believes that companies using crypto and other new technologies should have a legitimate regulatory route to become federally supervised banks.
Hence, he put it best when he said,
That is why entities that engage in activities involving digital assets and other novel technologies should have a pathway to become federally supervised banks if they so desire and if they meet the requirements to receive an OCC charter.
Regulatory hurdles
This comes amidst the delay in the CLARITY Act, which was already pushed from August to 15th September, and now the House has canceled much of its September voting calendar. This in turn has left lawmakers with a very narrow window to complete the legislation before the midterm elections.
However, the global cryptocurrency market cap seeing a surge of over 4% in the past 24 hours, changing hands at $2.8 trillion, suggests that the market is recovering strongly and things might change in favor by Q4 2026.
Final Summary
- Besides Revolut, OCC has given the green light to Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle.
- Revolut has already launched its euro-backed stablecoin, EURR, which received mixed reactions.
