Circle’s subsidiary received a limited-purpose trust charter from NYDFS

Circle Internet Group, the publicly traded company behind USDC, has received a New York limited-purpose trust company charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

4The approval applies to Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, operating as Circle New York Trust, rather than directly converting Circle’s publicly traded parent company into a bank.

The charter will allow Circle to issue USDC through an NYDFS-supervised trust company and strengthens the stablecoin’s position inside the regulated U.S. financial system.

New York trust charters undergo scrutiny similar to other banking and trust-company applications, although limited-purpose trust companies generally do not operate like traditional commercial banks or require FDIC deposit insurance.

The approval adds a state-regulated issuance structure to Circle’s expanding federal framework.

On July 10, 2026, Circle also received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust, a federally regulated national trust bank focused initially on digital-asset custody, with USDC reserve management planned as a future capability.

Together, the two charters create a more clearly divided regulatory structure: Circle New York Trust can support USDC issuance under NYDFS oversight, while Circle National Trust can provide federally supervised custody and eventually manage reserve assets.

This does not make USDC equivalent to an FDIC-insured bank deposit, but it gives Circle one of the most developed regulatory structures among major stablecoin issuers.

For Circle shareholders, the milestone strengthens the company’s argument that USDC is becoming foundational payment and settlement infrastructure rather than simply another cryptocurrency.

The immediate importance is regulatory credibility; the longer-term opportunity is broader USDC adoption across banks, fintech platforms, institutional custody systems and blockchain-based payments.