On July 17, Zerohash’s application to obtain an OCC nationwide trust bank license was rejected. The company emphasized that this was an “administrative rejection,” not a substantive denial. It plans to resubmit in phases this month, first focusing on approvals for nationwide trust activities. There are three main reasons: (1) The OCC has significantly tightened its review stance toward the charter for crypto trusts. The CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) publicly criticized the OCC for exercising “unlimited discretionary authority,” arguing that its patchwork “Franken license” goes beyond the authorization boundaries of the National Bank Act; (2) Zerohash’s own compliance shortcomings have been amplified—its former chief compliance officer filed CFTC-related litigation, alleging the company has more than 200 compliance defects; (3) The licensing-track is crowded at the same time. Circle (CRCL) has already received final OCC approval. Stripe and Crypto.com have received conditional green lights, while companies such as Coinbase (COIN) are still waiting in line. Regulatory resources and tolerance are tightening in parallel.

Impact outlook: Short term 📉 — Before Zerohash resubmits and before the compliance review is re-engaged, sentiment in the crypto compliance sector will remain under pressure, and valuation for “queueing” players such as COIN will be affected by spillover. Medium to long term 📈 — If Zerohash’s resubmission is approved, it will validate the logic of “licensed equals premium.” Beneficiaries include established licensed leaders such as CRCL. Once COIN’s license is finalized, there may also be additional upside. The key variable is not any single company, but whether the OCC will slow down the pace of issuing crypto charters under litigation pressure. #Zerohash称OCC退回其信托银行牌照申请
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