Sen. Warren launches a probe into the OCC, accusing the Trump administration of illegally granting “national trust” bank charters

Senator Elizabeth Warren is challenging the Trump administration and “big tech” once again, this time accusing crypto companies like Stripe and Coinbase of bypassing the requirements needed to offer banking services. 

Senator Warren is investigating the nine trust charters that have been approved for crypto companies since December 2025. She wrote a letter demanding records of communication between the Trump family and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is responsible for those approvals. 

Is the Trump administration letting crypto companies bypass rules? 

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a formal letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, accusing his agency of breaking the law to favor the crypto industry. 

Since December 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has approved at least nine “national trust charters” for crypto companies. Traditional trust charters are typically for limited activities like asset custody, but Senator Warren argues that these new entities look and act like full-scale banks without the necessary safety rails. 

She wrote that specifically, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), Ripple, Circle (NYSE: CRCL), Crypto.com, Paxos, BitGo, Stripe, and Fidelity Digital Assets are exploiting their position to “evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.”

The OCC, now led by Trump appointee Jonathan Gould, is pushing to integrate digital assets into the financial system. Earlier this year, in February, the OCC finalized a rule allowing trust banks to engage in activities traditionally reserved for fully regulated banks, such as trading and lending. 

Senator Warren claims this is “regulatory arbitrage” that allows these firms to avoid necessities like capital requirements, FDIC oversight, and the Bank Holding Company Act. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) also called the approval of the Coinbase charter a “grave mistake.”

What does the Trump family have to do with this?  

Senator Warren’s letter specifically requests all the records of talks between the OCC and the White House, President Trump, or his family members regarding these charter approvals. 

In January, World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture, filed an application for a national trust bank charter. President Trump holds a stake in the company, and so ethics experts argue that the administration is in a controversial position to approve a charter that directly benefits the President. 

Warren has previously called for the OCC to delay consideration of the Trump family application. Now, she is demanding the full applications for all nine approved companies, as well as legal justifications for the approvals, by June 1, 2026. 

Warren recently grilled Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over claims that grocery prices are falling, citing federal data showing that inflation jumped 0.7% in April, the highest monthly grocery inflation jump in four years. 

Warren began investigating in January, when her office reported American families paid $2,120 more in 2025 due to Trump-era inflation. She has since sent letters to Amazon, coffee companies, and the White House on cost increases caused by tariffs.

Additionally, she condemned the Trump administration for extending sanctions relief for Russian oil, accusing the White House of gifting money to Putin to fund the war in Ukraine. 

“Let’s be clear,” Warren said in a related statement regarding the administration’s financial moves, “this is corruption on steroids.”

Today’s letter is the latest of more than a dozen probes that Warren has launched, targeting POTUS, his family, cabinet and appointees since President Trump returned to office.

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