New York's Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted Circle a limited-purpose trust charter. The document went to a subsidiary of the USDC issuer, Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, which will now operate as Circle New York Trust.
The charter lets Circle offer fiduciary, custody and asset-management services under New York Banking Law. It still can't take deposits or make loans — this isn't a banking license in the traditional sense, but a trust status built for holding and administering other people's assets.
This isn't Circle's first stop at the New York regulator. NYDFS issued the company the very first BitLicense back in 2015. Three weeks earlier, Circle had already won federal approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to set up a national trust bank. The company now holds both federal and state trust status at once, a combination few stablecoin issuers can currently claim.
Rivals such as Coinbase, BitGo, Paxos and MoonPay have held New York trust charters for years, so on its own the license closes a gap rather than breaking new ground. Paired with the federal OCC approval, though, it reinforces USDC's position — the stablecoin's market cap tops $71.8 billion — as one of the most heavily regulated assets in the industry. Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire called the charter a long-standing company objective, pointing to the regulatory clarity it provides.
Markets shrugged: Circle shares (NYSE: CRCL) traded around $64 on Friday with no sharp moves. But the race among stablecoin issuers to stack up licenses keeps going, and as U.S. rules tighten, holding both federal and state status at once matters more with every passing month.
