Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

Stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Rain has filed an application to establish a national trust bank headquartered in New York, adding to a wave of crypto companies seeking bank charters over the last year. Rain said Monday it filed the application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Rain National Trust Bank. If approved, the bank would be able to provide fiduciary custody of digital assets and US dollars for institutional clients, provide reserve management for permitted stablecoin issuers and issue and redeem dollar-backed stablecoins in accordance with the GENIUS Act. Former Square Financial Services chief financial officer Brandon Soto will serve as president and CEO of the proposed national trust bank, subject to OCC review. “The institutions building on Rain want the assets behind their programs held by a fiduciary that answers to a federal regulator,” Rain CEO and co-founder Farooq Malik said.Rain joins a growing number of crypto and payments companies seeking national trust bank charters. Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury also announced Monday it had submitted an application seeking approval to offer digital asset custody and related fiat services.Community banks challenge OCC over crypto trust chartersHowever, the push has drawn opposition from community banks. On Friday, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC, alleging the regulator exceeded its authority by allowing non-depository trust banks to conduct extensive non-fiduciary activities. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould. The ICBA argued that the OCC’s National Bank Chartering final rule and an interpretive letter 1176, 2021, “perversely allow entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under lightly regulated national charters rather than the more rigorously regulated traditional bank charter.”Related: Bastion wins conditional OCC approval for national trust bank charterICBA said the framework gives crypto trust banks a competitive advantage by allowing them to offer services that overlap with community banks without facing the same regulatory obligations. It also alleged consumers could mistake the “national bank” designation for assurance that their assets are federally insured. The group has asked the court to overturn OCC’s March 2026 chartering rule and 2021 interpretive letter, and prevent further charter approvals relying on them. On Monday, Crypto Council for Innovation said the lawsuit was an attempt to stifle innovation.  According to the ICBA’s complaint, the OCC has approved or conditionally approved at least 21 trust banks, with at least 13 of them being crypto companies. Magazine: Stablecoins can drain from banks and nations at lightning speed

A Chinese organized crime syndicate laundered more than $1 billion stolen in multiple crypto exploits for North Korea’s Lazarus Group, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. In an Oct. 5 thread on X, pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he posed as a paying client to infiltrate the money laundering network in February 2025, just days after the Bybit hack. He put up $349,700 in stablecoins and took a 5% loss on each order to build trust with one of the network’s operators, known as “Jimmy Green.”ZachXBT said the operations spanned Hong Kong and mainland China, and information supplied by the launderer helped him identify a cluster of more than $12 million in Bybit-linked funds, with Tether later freezing $442,000 in associated USDt (USDT). The investigation offers rare insight into the alleged intermediaries handling North Korea’s stolen crypto. Hackers linked to the country have stolen at least $6.75 billion in digital assets through 2025, according to Chainalysis. How North Korea moves stolen cryptoNorth Korean hackers are known to use a multi-stage laundering process. One method involves chain-hopping and token swapping through decentralized exchanges, bridges and other services to obscure the flow of funds.Related: SlowMist traces Bitget hack activity to Aug. 31 zero-day exploitChinese intermediaries have emerged as an important link in that process. In 2020, US prosecutors charged two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million stolen by North Korean hackers from a cryptocurrency exchange in 2018. Source: ZachXBTIn 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two crypto traders, one from Hong Kong and the other from China, for their role in helping the DPRK convert stolen crypto and bypass financial controls. Chinese actors allegedly laundering Bitget fundsZachXBT has also linked Chinese actors to the laundering of funds from the $387.5 million Bitget exploit in September. In a post to X on Sept. 28, ZachXBT said Chinese actors allegedly laundering funds on behalf of the North Korean hackers had been openly seeking support in public Discord servers and Telegram channels operated by services they used. ZachXBT said one of the operators had also been involved in laundering funds from the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit in April. Magazine: Furious debate about THORChain vs NEAR shows idealism has limitsCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

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Greenfield Capital, an investor in Safe, says it has filed a supervisory complaint with Switzerland’s foundation watchdog, seeking changes to Safe Ecosystem Foundation’s board after months of engagement failed to resolve its governance concerns.In an open letter to the Safe community on Sunday, Greenfield founding partner Jascha Samadi said the complaint to Switzerland’s Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) comes after his firm became “increasingly concerned” about the state of Safe since early 2025, citing its performance relative to the broader market and a lack of independent voices on the foundation board. “But we have come to believe, after more than a year of research, dialogue and patience, that Safe will not reach its potential under its current governance,” Samadi said. The governance dispute comes as Safe is targeting break-even and a doubling of revenue in 2026. In a February announcement, the project reported more than $10 million in project-wide annualized revenue at the end of 2025, and outlined a longer-term ambition to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue by 2030.Greenfield questions Safe’s revenue growthHowever, Greenfield pointed to $1.98 million in second-quarter revenue, equivalent to an annualized run rate of $8 million, as far below the $20 million expectation for 2026. The firm argued that Safe was losing ground despite growth in the broader crypto market. Samadi said between January 2024 and August 2026, total value held in Safe accounts fell from $66 billion to $30 billion, declining more than 50%, while total DeFi total value locked grew 40%.Over the same period, total stablecoin supply grew roughly 135%, while stablecoins held in Safes on Ethereum grew only 11%, and Safe’s share of USDC in circulation fell from 12.8% to 2.5%.Related: Safe unveils new unit to build enterprise-grade crypto wallets “In the category that has grown the most and that self-custody infrastructure is best placed to serve, Safe has been losing ground for two and a half years.” Samadi attributed many of those concerns to a lack of independent board members with “experienced decision-making.” He also alleged conflicts of interest involving board member Stefan George’s role at Gnosis and fellow board member Richard Meissner’s ties to companies developing and operating Safe products.Greenfield said it had spent months asking the foundation to restructure its governance, replacing George and expanding the board with independent, externally recruited members with expertise in finance, risk management and business strategy. It is now asking the Swiss watchdog to examine the foundation’s governance and determine whether corrective measures are needed. Magazine: Former SEC boss made AI Czar, Bitcoin may hit $600K this cycle: Hodler’s Digest

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