2️⃣ Bank Charter Bonanza
Multiple crypto-focused firms are now in the process of applying for U.S. banking charters to establish their own depository institutions.

Stablecoin issuer Circle kicked off the announcement cycle on Monday with a statement that it had formally submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish “First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.” 

By Wednesday, Ripple (issuer of RLUSD) and Erebor (a crypto-focused bank backed by Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Peter Thiel) had both announced their own applications with the OCC for national bank charters.

OCC license recipients could act as custodians for their own reserves, strengthening the quality of their stablecoins by mitigating the risk of a future depeg stemming from a bank run (as seen during the 2023 collapse of SVB).

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also indicated that his firm had applied for a Federal Reserve Master Account, which would give it the ability to hold interest-bearing bank reserves directly with the Fed.