Stablecoin infrastructure provider Bastion has moved a step closer to operating under direct federal supervision after securing preliminary conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter. The decision, disclosed by the company on Friday, would layer OCC oversight on top of the state-level licenses Bastion already holds and consolidate its stablecoin custody, payments, and issuance work inside a single federally regulated entity.

The proposed institution, to be licensed as Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, would not function like a conventional commercial bank. Bastion said the chartered trust bank could not accept deposits or make loans, a boundary that keeps the…