Circle: OCC Grants National Trust Bank Charter

Circle shares rose 13% in premarket after the OCC granted final approval for Circle National Trust, allowing the firm to serve as a federally regulated custodian for its USDC reserves and hold digital assets for institutions. The charter, applied for in June 2025 with conditional approval in December, places USDC on national bank regulatory footing amid GENIUS Act pressure on stablecoin issuers. The move follows a 17.55% single-session drop on June 30 that erased $3.6 billion in $CRCL market value after Open USD launched with Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock and Coinbase backing plus Russell index removals.