Circle Makes Power Play: Stablecoin Titan Aims to Become Its Own Bank with National Trust License Bid
Circle—the $30B gorilla of stablecoins—just dropped a regulatory mic. The USDC issuer filed for a national trust charter, signaling its endgame: cutting out banking middlemen entirely.
Banking on itself
This isn't some DeFi upstart's pipe dream. We're talking about a crypto heavyweight with Treasury-grade reserves attempting the ultimate institutional pivot. The application would let Circle custody assets, process payments, and issue credit—all without JPMorgan or BNY Mellon taking their pound of flesh.
The fine print
Trust licenses come with Fed oversight but skip state-by-state compliance hell. For a company processing $150B/month in transactions, that's not just convenient—it's existential. Though we'll see how regulators feel about a stablecoin issuer becoming what amounts to a shadow bank (just don't call it that at the hearings).
Circle's betting the house that 2025 will be the year crypto finally eats traditional finance's lunch. Wall Street's response? Probably something between 'how dare they' and 'can we invest?'
