Circle Adds New York Trust Charter to Growing Slate of Licenses

Circle Internet Trust Company, which does business as Circle New York Trust, has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Circle Internet Group said in a Friday (July 31) press release.

A limited purpose trust company is chartered under the bank and trust company provisions of New York banking law but without the general power to take deposits or make loans, according to the NYDFS website.

PYMNTS reported in February that trust charters can support custody and fiduciary-style activity, which is often the point for crypto, but they are not automatically the same as being an FDIC-insured commercial bank.

Circle said in the Friday press release that its new charter joins the BitLicense the company received from NYDFS in 2015, deepens the regulatory foundation for Circle and its USDC stablecoin, and provides regulatory clarity.

“NYDFS is an international standard setter for digital asset regulation, and New York is Circle’s global headquarters,” Circle Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said in the release. “This charter reflects over a decade of regulatory commitment and positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system.”

Circle Internet Group announced July 10 that it received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.

The bank, First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., will operate under the name Circle National Trust and will offer fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates.

“Federal oversight of our trust bank sets a new standard for transparency, governance and scale for Circle’s infrastructure and unlocks a new phase of adoption, where leading financial institutions can build on public blockchains with clarity and confidence,” Allaire said at the time in a press release.

Circle also has licenses or other regulatory approvals in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bermuda, Canada and Abu Dhabi Global Market.

PYMNTS reported in May that during Circle’s first-quarter earnings call, the stablecoin issuer and digital asset infrastructure provider framed itself as an economic operating system being built for the future.

“Circle is an early-stage company just starting to execute our long-term strategy,” Allaire said during the call. “We are entering a fundamentally different era of software-powered money … at internet scale and velocity.”