OpenReserve wins preliminary OCC approval for blockchain-native national bank
The proposed Utah bank must raise at least $210 million and clear pre-opening conditions before it can operate, with plans for tokenized deposits, custody and a stablecoin subsidiary.
By The Third AnglePublished 4 min read
OpenReserve's charter remains conditional while the OCC reviews pre-opening requirements. Photo: Unsplash · Unsplash License
A conditional charter, not a launch
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given OpenReserve Bank, National Association preliminary conditional approval to organize a full-service national bank. The OCC's corporate decision lists the September 2 decision, while OpenReserve describes the proposed bank as based in Salt Lake City.
The approval is an important regulatory step, but it does not authorize banking operations yet. OpenReserve must complete the OCC's pre-opening examination and satisfy other conditions, including obtaining any required approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation before opening to customers.
The immediate constraint is capital before scale. The OCC says the bank must raise at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital, net of organizational and pre-opening expenses, and maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 12% for its first three years.
Onchain services inside a bank perimeter
OpenReserve says its proposed services include deposits and lending, payments and treasury services, tokenized deposit products, digital-asset custody and foreign correspondent banking. The company is building around a programmable core ledger and native onchain settlement, but the charter conditions remain the controlling evidence of what can actually be offered.
The OCC letter also describes a planned wholly owned subsidiary for issuing, holding, converting and paying U.S.-dollar reserve-backed stablecoins. That subsidiary has not filed its own application, so the stablecoin plan is a proposed structure rather than an operating approval.
Readers should separate regulatory permission from product availability. OpenReserve raised a $25 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to the company and The Block, but that financing is far below the capital condition stated by the OCC. The bank's timeline therefore depends on fundraising, governance and supervisory work.
The broader significance is that regulators are evaluating blockchain-native banking models within familiar safety-and-soundness requirements. The test will be whether OpenReserve can meet capital, risk, compliance and operational controls before it promises continuous settlement or stablecoin rails. Until final approval, the prudent description is a proposed national bank with conditional approval, not a live crypto bank.
