In a major step for the integration of digital assets and traditional finance, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted preliminary approval for a national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank. Backed by a high-profile roster of crypto investors—including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, and Coinbase Ventures—the Salt Lake City-based institution is designed as a full-service bank featuring embedded, on-chain settlement.
While the OCC has previously approved conditional charters for various trust companies, OpenReserve deliberately pursued a full national bank charter to establish a regulated foundation. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dee Choubey emphasized that rigorous supervision, compliance, and customer confidence are integral to the firm’s core model. The bank aims to provide institutional services encompassing treasury management, stablecoin issuance, and tokenized deposits, operating in alignment with incoming regulations under the GENIUS Act.
Investors have highlighted the critical need for financial infrastructure that operates on the same continuous schedule as digital asset markets. In explaining its decision to back the project, a16z crypto noted that the industry requires a continuous, fully available banking partner that never closes. The funding round also drew support from prominent venture firms including Acrew, Wintermute Ventures, Clocktower, Quona, AAF Management, and Zero Knowledge Ventures following OpenReserve’s initial charter application in April.
The preliminary charter reflects a broader shift toward integrating crypto-native institutions into the regulated U.S. banking system. Under the current administration, federal regulators have increasingly welcomed digital asset firms into the formal banking sector, helping ease years of strained access to traditional financial services. Demonstrating this expanding scope, the OCC simultaneously granted a conditional charter to British fintech firm Revolut to launch operations out of Connecticut.
