Warren Vs. Crypto: The Digital Chamber Rejects Risk Claims From National Trust Charters
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s criticism of how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) handled national trust bank charters for digital asset firms has triggered a direct response from the crypto industry. On Tuesday, The Digital Chamber (TDC) sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, pushing back on Warren’s claims and arguing that the OCC’s actions were both lawful and grounded in a careful supervisory review.
Why Warren Targets OCC Crypto Charters The dispute centers on a letter Warren wrote to Gould earlier this month, following reports that the OCC had approved national trust charters for a range of digital-asset companies. Warren’s argument, as reported by Bitcoinist ahead of TDC’s reply, is that at least some of the firms appear to be “seemingly ineligible” for the kind of charter they received.
” However, TDC argued that the charter decisions represent “a legally sound and long-overdue step” toward bringing digital asset activities into the federal prudential framework, which it described as being focused on safety and soundness. The Digital Chamber’s Response The Digital Chamber emphasized that the firms named in Warren’s letter were not simply handed permission.
According to TDC, each company went through a rigorous OCC review and met applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. The group said charters, or conditional approvals for charters , were granted only after each firm demonstrated that its proposed activities fit within permissible activities for national trust banks. TDC further rejected Warren’s characterization that the approvals could amount to “apparent violations” of the National Bank Act, arguing that this view misunderstands both the statute and the OCC’s longstanding authority to grant charters.
At the end of the letter, The Digital Chamber said it is ready to work with the OCC, Congress, and other stakeholders to help ensure that the federal framework for digital asset activities is both legally durable and functionally effective. com