Revolut and OpenReserve cleared a preliminary hurdle with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, moving closer to operating national banks that will offer cryptocurrency and stablecoin services. The OCC approval puts both fintechs on a path to embed digital assets directly into US-regulated banking infrastructure, a shift that’s been more rumor than reality since the last banking charter wave stalled out.
Both companies plan to roll crypto and stablecoin functionality into their banking operations, though details on which assets, custody models, or stablecoin issuers remain unspecified. Revolut already runs a crypto brokerage in its consumer app outside the US, but a national bank charter changes the compliance calculus entirely. OpenReserve’s angle is less familiar; the name hasn’t dominated headlines the way Revolut has, but preliminary OCC approval doesn’t get handed out to unknowns. Someone with regulatory credibility is behind it.
What Preliminary Approval Actually Means
Preliminary approval isn’t a charter. It’s conditional clearance, the OCC’s way of saying “build out your capital structure, governance, and compliance frameworks, then come back.” The clock starts on a long checklist: board composition, anti-money laundering protocols, capital adequacy, examiner access. Final approval can take months or years, and the OCC retains the power to pull the plug if conditions aren’t met. Multiple crypto-friendly charter applicants died in that gap during the last regulatory cycle.
The timing is notable. We’re years past the Paxos and Anchorage trust charters, past the failed Custodia fight, past the OCC interpretive letters under Brian Brooks that briefly opened the door for banks to custody crypto and run stablecoin nodes. That guidance got walked back. This approval suggests the OCC under its current leadership sees a lane for crypto services within a traditional bank framework, provided the applicant clears every box.
Revolut’s US Ambitions, OpenReserve’s Opacity
Revolut’s been chasing a US banking foothold for years. The company holds licenses in multiple states and offers crypto trading, but operating as a national bank would let it scale deposits, lending, and payment rails without the state-by-state slog. Adding stablecoin and crypto services to that base turns it into something closer to what Coinbase or Kraken have tried to build on the exchange side, but with deposit insurance and regulatory cover that comes with an OCC charter.
OpenReserve remains the wildcard. No press blitz, no CEO on podcasts. Either it’s a quiet institutional play or a rebrand of something older. Either way, it convinced the OCC it can run a national bank with crypto services, which means capital, compliance expertise, and a business plan that checked the regulator’s boxes.
If both clear final approval, it won’t just be two more banks. It’ll be two templates for how digital assets get normalized inside the US banking system, stablecoin hooks and all. The OCC just said it’s willing to let that happen, with conditions. Now we see if Revolut and OpenReserve can meet them.
