Rain Files OCC Application for Stablecoin-Focused National Trust Bank

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Stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain is trying to move a large part of its business under direct U.S. federal banking supervision.

The company has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Rain National Trust Bank, a proposed national trust bank headquartered in New York.

If approved, the entity would handle digital and fiat asset custody, manage reserves for permitted stablecoin issuers and act as an issuer of record for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins.

This would not be a normal consumer bank

Rain National Trust Bank would operate as a separately capitalized subsidiary.

The proposed institution would be uninsured and would not accept consumer deposits, provide retail bank accounts or make commercial loans.

Instead, client assets would be held in custody as fiduciary assets rather than becoming liabilities of the bank. Rain also says stablecoin reserve assets would not be pledged or reused.

That distinction matters because the business model is closer to regulated financial infrastructure than traditional deposit banking.

Rain currently operates across a patchwork of state licenses, third-party custodians and external stablecoin issuers. A federal trust charter could consolidate several of those functions under a single supervisory framework.

Stablecoin companies are becoming regulated financial institutions

The application reflects a broader shift in the sector.

Stablecoin companies increasingly need regulated custody, reserve management and redemption infrastructure as they move beyond crypto trading into payments, cards and cross-border settlement.

The GENIUS Act has also created a clearer framework for permitted dollar-backed stablecoin issuance and reserve management in the United States.

Rain says its platform already supports neobanks, developers and AI agents moving stablecoins through global cards, rewards and cross-border payment rails. The company is a Visa and Mastercard Principal Member, giving its payment products access to large merchant networks.

If the OCC approves the charter, Rain would be able to pair that payments layer with a federally supervised custody and stablecoin-reserve entity.

The filing does not mean the charter has been granted. OCC applications undergo regulatory review, and the final structure could change before approval.

But the direction is significant: instead of building around banks, some crypto payment companies are increasingly trying to become federally supervised trust institutions themselves.

Sources: Rain application announcement and the Reuters brief.

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