OpenReserve Wins Preliminary OCC Approval for National Bank Charter

OpenReserve has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a de novo national bank. The move signals a rare attempt by a blockchain-native firm to secure a full-service federal charter rather than a limited-purpose trust license.

To finalize the charter, the OCC has mandated strict capital requirements. OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital and maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 12% for the first three years of operation. The startup recently closed a $25 million seed round led by a16z crypto to support these efforts.

The Vision for Continuous Banking

Founded in 2025 by Diwakar (Dee) Choubey, the former founder of MoneyLion, and Richard (Rick) Correia, a former executive at Merrill Lynch and Citadel, OpenReserve seeks to overhaul the plumbing of the financial system. The company intends to replace legacy banking back-ends with a programmable core ledger and native onchain settlement. This architecture is designed to enable "continuous banking," allowing financial services to operate 24/7 without the delays inherent in traditional ACH or wire transfer systems.

"Supervision, safety and soundness, compliance, and customer confidence are not constraints on what we are building; they are the foundation of it," said Choubey, co-founder and CEO of OpenReserve.

Bridging Two Financial Worlds

By pursuing a full national charter, OpenReserve is positioning itself to do more than just hold digital assets. Unlike many crypto firms that operate as custodians, a full charter allows the entity to legally accept insured deposits and create credit. This effectively merges the regulatory protections and capabilities of a traditional commercial bank with the speed and transparency of blockchain technology.

This approach represents a significant shift in how crypto-native services interface with U.S. regulation. It moves the conversation from simply "regulating crypto" to integrating blockchain settlement into the core of the U.S. federal banking system, potentially reducing the reliance on intermediaries for settlement and clearing.

The Path Forward

While the preliminary approval is a major milestone, the company still faces the steep challenge of meeting the OCC's capital mandates. The industry will be watching closely to see if OpenReserve can successfully raise the remaining capital required to satisfy federal regulators. If successful, the bank will serve as a primary test case for whether the OCC is willing to allow a fully onchain ledger to serve as the system of record for a federally chartered bank.