Community bankers are suing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) over approvals of national trust bank charters for cryptocurrency companies.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed the lawsuit on October 2nd, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The suit challenges a March 2nd, 2026, final rule and related guidance that the group says improperly expands the OCC’s power to charter national trust banks for non-fiduciary activities, including substantial crypto operations.

The complaint seeks to overturn the rule and vacate the conditional approval granted to at least one crypto firm, Protego Holdings Corp.

The OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 such charters, with at least 13 going to crypto companies.

“These approvals violate the law because they exceed the OCC’s statutory authority. They are also arbitrary and capricious because the OCC ignored warnings from commenters, including ICBA, that Protego and other crypto companies had severely flawed risk and control functions and governance structures that lack independent oversight. They are thus at serious risk of failure if the volatile cryptocurrency market crashes.”

According to the ICBA, the OCC’s decision to allow companies to obtain national trust bank charters to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency.

Says ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey,

“Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions.”

The OCC’s final rule and Interpretive Letter No. 1176 “perversely regulate trust banks far more lightly than traditional banks, allowing entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under the national trust charter rather than the more rigorously regulated traditional bank charter,” the lawsuit states.

Prior to the recent approvals, the OCC had never chartered a national bank that neither took deposits nor engaged in fiduciary activities.

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Cryptocurrency thefts are surging dramatically with two massive incidents pushing total losses to record levels for the month.

Security firm PeckShieldAlert says the industry experienced 55 major hacks resulting in $766.49 million in losses.

That figure represents a roughly 462% month-over-month increase from August’s $136.3 million.

The Bitget incident at about $387 million and the Liquid Network theft of about $320 million, with $285 million returned, have jumped to the top spots among the largest crypto thefts of the year to date.

Other notable incidents included an MEV bot yoink front-run at $7.81 million that was returned, along with Duelbits at $7 million and several smaller exploits with partial recoveries.

The top 10 list also featured Payment Processor V2 at $6.6 million with $3.4 million returned, DCENT Wallet at $6.57 million Astroport at $4.9 million Drop at $4.4 million NostraFinance at $3.5 million and Nomic nBTC Bridge at $3.15 million.

Earlier this month, PeckShield cited on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, saying Near (NEAR) Intents was hacked to the tune of $3.865M after its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) hot wallet witnessed multiple irregular outflows.

The exploiter has transferred the stolen funds to KuCoin and bridged them to BTC. The exploiter’s address has interacted with an address labeled NorthKorea LazarusGroup (0x098B7…E2f96)

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Congress is reportedly considering expanding crypto rules to allow banks and credit unions to hold digital assets, issue stablecoins, and use blockchain. According to new information from the Congressional Research Service, Policymakers are currently debating whether activities involving cryptocurrencies and digital assets (crypto) should be considered bank-permissible activities.

JUST IN: Congress considers expanding crypto rules to allow banks and credit unions to hold digital assets, issue stablecoins, and use blockchain.

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) October 1, 2026

According to the report, any new legislation would result in a more durable outcome, reducing the likelihood of frequent regulatory changes. Furthermore, Congress may consider whether a more permanent solution allowing or limiting crypto activities would be preferable. In recent years, the policy debate on permissible activities has focused on crypto. Bank lawmakers have consistently maintained that banks can conduct crypto-related activities only if they are legally permissible and conducted in a safe and sound manner. However, that has changed in recent years, with the arrival of the second Trump administration and the growing popularity of cryptocurrency.

As the crypto clarity continues to be debated in the U.S. Senate, the future of digital assets in traditional finance remains a hot topic. The SEC has already agreed to begin working on clearer crypto regulation and new rules for digital assets to be handled by banks. The GENIUS Act already made stablecoin issuance, custody, and related activities allowed for businesses owned by banks this past summer.

Also Read: Broadcom (AVGO) to lend Anthropic up to $42 billion for AI Chips

Whether any administration seeks to expand or constrain bank participation in crypto, the report suggests the regulatory baseline remains vulnerable to reversal unless Congress acts, and that a permissive stance would raise questions about capital, liquidity, anti-money-laundering compliance, and exposure to crypto-market volatility.

Key takeaways Europese financiële autoriteiten onderzoeken Binance, ’s werelds grootste cryptobeurs, met betrekking tot haar lopende activiteiten binnen de Europese Unie. Ondanks het feit dat het bedrijf er niet in is geslaagd de vereiste vergunning te verkrijgen onder het nieuwe regelgevingskader van de EU en instructies heeft ontvangen om de activiteiten te staken, zou het […]