The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, arguing the regulator exceeded the authority Congress granted it by allowing cryptocurrency companies to obtain limited national trust bank charters.

The ICBA filed the complaint Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The trade group, which represents community banks across the country, claims the OCC has handed crypto firms the credibility of a US bank charter without sufficient safeguards and without requiring compliance with the obligations that apply to conventional banks.

"The OCC's decision to allow companies to obtain national trust bank charters to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency," ICBA president and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement. "Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions."

Rainey added that the ICBA is asking the court to return the OCC to its statutory limits.

The OCC did not reply to a request for comment by the time of publication.

At the center of the dispute is the national trust bank charter, a limited federal banking license. Unlike full commercial bank charters, trust charters do not permit holders to accept deposits or make loans. That distinction matters commercially: a crypto company holding a trust charter gains federal recognition and the operational legitimacy that comes with it, while sidestepping the supervisory apparatus that governs insured depository institutions — including Community Reinvestment Act requirements, consolidated oversight, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance.

The lawsuit targets an approach the OCC has accelerated under President Donald Trump and Comptroller Jonathan Gould. Cointelegraph reported in August that the agency has approved, or conditionally approved, multiple applications from crypto companies seeking trust charters to expand their services in the US market.

For crypto firms, the stakes are operational as much as reputational. Trust charters provide a federally recognized legal wrapper that eases state-by-state licensing burdens and supports custody and related product offerings. A ruling in the ICBA's favor could invalidate or restrict that pathway, forcing chartered crypto companies to restructure their US compliance operations or pursue alternative licenses at the state level.

For community banks, the complaint frames the issue as competitive distortion. Their members operate under the full weight of federal supervision and deposit insurance costs, while crypto trust charter holders, in the ICBA's telling, obtain a comparable federal imprimatur at a fraction of the regulatory burden.

The case now moves into briefing before the DC federal court, which has become a primary venue for challenges to federal financial regulatory decisions. The outcome will help define how far the OCC can stretch limited-purpose charters — and whether the crypto industry's fastest route into the US banking perimeter survives judicial review.