The Independent Community Bankers of America filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in federal court on Friday, accusing the regulator of overstepping its legal authority by granting national trust-bank charters to crypto firms.

In its complaint, the ICBA argues the OCC is exercising "sweeping new powers to charter national trust banks that are not authorized by the National Bank Act." The trade group, one of the largest banking advocacy organizations in the United States and typically representing smaller institutions, contends the agency is allowing digital asset companies into the U.S. banking system without subjecting them to the same level of regulatory oversight that community banks face — putting those small banks "at a severe competitive disadvantage."

"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," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement. She noted that trust-chartered crypto firms avoid obligations that traditional banks must meet on capital, liquidity, supervision and deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

An OCC spokesperson, asked for comment by CoinDesk, said the agency "does not comment on litigation."

The lawsuit escalates a broader confrontation between community banks and the digital asset industry over access to the U.S. banking and payments system. The ICBA played a significant role in pushing back against the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which failed to advance in the U.S. Senate last month — in part due to bankers' objections that its stablecoin provisions did not protect them against direct competition with the deposit accounts that are core to their business model.

Now the group is targeting the trust charter as the crypto industry's preferred entry point into regulated finance. The OCC has granted a steady stream of trust charters to crypto firms, though those companies do not operate under the same business model or intend to offer the same services as typical community banks. Notably, they do not offer the kind of cash deposit accounts for which FDIC insurance is designed and required.

Banking regulators have credited the industry's pursuit of national trust charters with driving a resurgence in new banking names after a lengthy drought in new charter approvals.

Some of the trusts were established as crypto-focused banks from the outset, such as Protego and Erebor. Others came from the existing ranks of prominent crypto businesses, including Coinbase, Circle and Crypto.com.

A recent addition is World Liberty Financial, the firm partly owned by President Donald Trump and his family. Its charter approval drew criticism from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who accused the agency of permitting presidential corruption and posted on X that the new charter was "giving him and his family a new way to profit."

Last month, the OCC also granted a full national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain bank funded by several crypto investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

The litigation now puts the legal boundaries of the OCC's chartering authority before a federal court. A ruling construing the National Bank Act narrowly could force crypto trust banks to restructure their compliance frameworks — or push Congress to settle the question through market-structure legislation.