Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure arm of Stripe, has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to organize a national trust bank as competition in the sector continues at a steady pace. Once approved, the charter would allow Bridge “to operate under a unified federal framework consistent with the GENIUS Act,” co-founder Zack Abrams stated on X. The proposed Bridge National Trust Bank would enable Stripe to issue, redeem, and custody stablecoins within a federally regulated framework, instead of going through state-level money-transmitter licenses.  Such a regulatory infrastructure would enable Bridge “to tokenize trillions of dollars,” Abrams added. Stripe acquired Bridge in October last year through a $1.1 billion deal as part of its broader plan to integrate blockchain-based payments into its global merchant network. The move follows passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which created a new charter category for “permitted payment stablecoin issuers.” Under the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuers are required to maintain 100% reserves in cash or Treasuries, publish monthly disclosures, and prioritize redemption rights for token holders. Through the GENIUS framework, the OCC can directly supervise nonbank issuers such as Bridge, a shift long sought by fintech firms. Decrypt reached out to the OCC and Stripe for comment. The rush for federal bank charters is already underway. In July, Circle filed for a national trust license to oversee USDC reserves under OCC oversight.  Shortly after, Ripple joined the queue, with its own OCC charter bid, seeking dual federal and state oversight. Paxos followed a month later, positioning itself for national rather than purely state-level licensing. Earlier this month,  Coinbase announced it had applied for a National Trust Company Charter. If granted, Bridge’s license would make it one of the first stablecoin-focused national trust banks in the U.S. Observers see the filing as a test of Washington’s new approach to digital asset regulation. Bridge’s OCC charter bid follows a “major inflection point for the stablecoin sector,” showing how “the U.S. is finally moving toward federal recognition of digital dollar infrastructure,” a representative for decentralized exchange aggregator Astros, told Decrypt. “A federally chartered stablecoin bank under the GENIUS Act will set a precedent for interoperability between on-chain liquidity and off-chain oversight,” they added. Asked about state-licensed models such as those for other stablecoin issuers like Circle and Paxos, Astros stated that Bridge’s move could be seen as “a complement, not a displacement.” What matters is how efforts to build “a layered system where regulated institutions and decentralized protocols can safely co-exist” could be consolidated, they said. Decentralized finance platforms could benefit from “more clarity” at the federal level, allowing them to integrate compliant and high-quality collateral “without sacrificing user autonomy or innovation,” Astros stated.