News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Fortune, Catena Labs—founded by Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle—has raised $30 million in its Series A funding round, led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, and QED. Catena Labs focuses on developing tools that enable AI agents to conduct financial transactions securely. The company has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in New York for a national trust bank charter, seeking regulatory authorization to process payments and hold customer funds. Previously, in 2025, Catena Labs secured an initial $18 million financing round led by a16z crypto.
According to Bloomberg, Senator Elizabeth Warren has questioned financial regulators’ decision to allow cryptocurrency companies to enter the banking system. The Massachusetts Democrat sent a letter to Jonathan Gould, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), noting that the agency has approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto firms that “appear unqualified.” Warren stated that these charters “appear to far exceed the narrow scope of activities permitted by law” and constitute “an apparent violation of the National Bank Act.” She questioned whether the OCC followed applicable legal requirements during its approval process and requested an explanation regarding the compliance of these crypto firms in obtaining bank charters.
According to The Block, crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash Europe has obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), becoming the first company to hold both a European MiCAR license and EMI authorization. Zerohash previously secured its MiCAR license in October 2025; this dual licensing enables it to legally provide crypto-asset services and process traditional electronic money flows across the European Economic Area (EEA), and to directly serve institutional clients such as banks, brokers, fintech firms, and payment platforms. The company is already collaborating with partners including Interactive Brokers Europe and has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter. Additionally, Zerohash is reportedly seeking $250 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation.
According to The Block, global asset management firm Franklin Templeton and Payward—the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken—have announced a partnership to jointly explore tokenization pathways for traditional investment products. The collaboration spans tokenized equities, compliant custody, actively managed yield products, and institutional crypto liquidity services. The two parties plan to launch tokenized Franklin Templeton financial products targeting institutional clients, with potential expansion to Kraken’s broader user base depending on circumstances. Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, stated that this partnership will pioneer entirely new product categories that were not feasible just three years ago. Meanwhile, Payward has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust company charter to further expand its access within the U.S. financial system.
Odaily Odaily News According to the latest weekly report from Gate Ventures, global markets continued to strengthen last week, driven by the technology sector. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq index hit new record highs, with the S&P 500 gaining 2.36% for the week and the Nasdaq rising 4.52%. In the crypto market, BTC rose 4.6% last week, ETH rose 2.1%, spot BTC ETFs recorded net inflows for the fifth consecutive week, and market sentiment recovered to the neutral range. Additionally, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies excluding the top ten assets increased by 12.6% for the week.On the macroeconomic front, the ISM Services Price Index rose to 70.7, a two-year high, coupled with energy price fluctuations and the Federal Reserve's policy expectation of "keeping interest rates higher for longer," leading to increased market focus on a "stagflation" environment. On the industry level, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has applied to the OCC for a national trust charter, highlighting the increasingly evident trend of industry compliance. In terms of investment and financing, 10 deals were completed last week totaling $34.2 million, primarily concentrated in the DeFi and infrastructure sectors. Among them, OpenTrade completed a $17 million funding round to accelerate the development of institutional-grade stablecoin yield infrastructure; OnRe secured a $5 million Series A round to advance its Solana-based tokenized reinsurance product offerings.
According to Fortune, stablecoin-focused bank Augustus has received a federal banking charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), becoming the eighth institution to obtain such a license since 2010. Simultaneously, Augustus closed a $40 million funding round, with investors including Valar Ventures (founded by Peter Thiel), Creandum, and founders of Ramp, Deel, and Circle.
According to CoinDesk, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, announced on May 9 that it has submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust company charter. If approved, Payward National Trust Company (PNTC) will be established to provide federally regulated digital asset custody and fiduciary services to institutional and individual clients.
Payward (Kraken's parent company) has applied to the OCC for a national trust company charter, planning to establish Payward National Trust Company (PNTC).The entity will offer regulated, bank-grade digital asset custody and trust services to both institutional and individual clients.Previously, Coinbase and Ripple have received conditional approval for similar charters, indicating that crypto institutions are accelerating their alignment with compliant financial systems.
Circle has submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), offering recommendations on the implementing rules for the GENIUS Act and outlining six core positions.
According to CoinDesk, Amy Oldenburg, Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Morgan Stanley, stated at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas that U.S. banks may hold bitcoin on their balance sheets in the future—but the timeline remains uncertain due to guidance from the Federal Reserve, the Basel Accords, and global regulatory requirements. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s recently launched MSBT—the first bank-issued bitcoin ETP—drew over $100 million in inflows within its first six days of listing, all sourced exclusively from self-directed investment channels and not yet made available to financial advisors. Oldenburg noted that slow adoption by the advisor channel stems primarily from an education gap; the bank has initiated internal training programs to address this and is applying for a digital trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to support direct custody of crypto assets and spot crypto trading services.
BlackRock has submitted a comment letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), opposing the reserve asset restrictions proposed in its draft rules implementing the GENIUS Act. In the comment letter, the firm specifically targets the rules for "permitted payment stablecoin issuers," calling for no quantitative cap on tokenized reserve assets.BlackRock stated that the proposed restrictions are unrelated to regulatory objectives, and the risk of reserve assets should be determined by their credit quality, duration, and liquidity rather than whether they are held or transferred on a distributed ledger. This comment letter was submitted in response to multiple rule proposals from the OCC covering reserve composition, capital requirements, custody, and other related matters. (The Block)
A research report released by a16z Crypto states that stablecoins have evolved from niche trading tools into the foundational layer of a new global financial infrastructure, giving rise to a new generation of “Banking-as-a-Service” (BaaS) models. Unlike the previous wave of BaaS, this new model is built on onchain infrastructure and integrates account management, payments, foreign exchange, and credit functions via self-custodial wallets—significantly reducing reliance on traditional intermediaries. The report classifies blockchains into three categories: general-purpose public chains (e.g., Solana and Ethereum), purpose-built chains optimized for payment use cases (e.g., Stripe’s Tempo and Circle’s Arc), and compliance-focused networks designed for regulated institutions (e.g., Canton). On the regulatory front, following the passage of the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuers are competing aggressively for national trust charters from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), aiming to gain direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails and secure a central position within the payments stack. The report also notes that stablecoins have made significant progress in the “middle mile” of cross-border payments; however, liquidity bottlenecks between stablecoins and local fiat currencies remain unresolved in emerging markets. Looking ahead, as stablecoin scale grows, the onchain credit market is poised to become the next major opportunity after payments—providing capital to borrowers underserved by traditional financial systems. Moreover, the widespread adoption of stablecoins is expected to further reinforce the U.S. dollar’s global dominance.
According to CoinDesk, citing the Financial Times, Revolut—the largest fintech company in Europe and a crypto-friendly platform—has informed investors that its target valuation range for its IPO is $150 billion to $200 billion, with the earliest possible listing date no earlier than 2028. Previously, in November 2025, the company completed a share sale at a valuation of $75 billion—representing over a 125% increase from that figure. Meanwhile, Revolut is reportedly preparing for a secondary share sale in the second half of 2026, with an expected valuation of approximately $100 billion. Financially, the company’s pre-tax profit for 2025 rose 57% year-on-year to £1.7 billion (approximately $2.3 billion). On the operational front, Revolut obtained a full UK banking license in March this year and has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a U.S. banking license, accelerating its global market expansion. However, insiders indicate that a formal valuation target has not yet been finalized.
According to Cointelegraph, bipartisan U.S. lawmakers jointly unveiled the “PACE Act,” which proposes to establish a unified national payment license for fintech and cryptocurrency companies, to be regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).