The stablecoin trust charter, once a crypto-native workaround, is turning into a template that consumer tech conglomerates can pick up off the shelf.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted preliminary conditional approval for Connectia Trust, National Association, a New York-based national trust bank that will be wholly owned by Sony Bank Incorporated, itself a subsidiary of Sony Financial Group. The OCC’s order authorizes Connectia Trust to issue and maintain reserves for a dollar-backed stablecoin, provide custody for that stablecoin and select others, and offer fiduciary asset management, all in a non-fiduciary, non-deposit-taking structure. Transfers will run on a closed-loop, permissioned network limited to Sony Group Corporation’s own platforms, serving the retail customers Sony already has relationships with. Final authorization to open still requires Connectia Trust to clear preopening conditions, and Sony has set a 2027 target for commercial launch, pending sign-off from Japan’s Financial Services Agency as well.
The approval matters less for what Sony gets than for what it confirms: the OCC’s national trust charter, first used to bring crypto-native firms like Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets into the regulated perimeter in December, is now a repeatable path for any large consumer platform that wants to issue its own dollar stablecoin without becoming a bank. The OCC’s decision leans explicitly on the GENIUS Act’s recognition of uninsured national banks’ authority to issue stablecoins, the same statute that set the rulemaking clock running a year ago. What is new here is the applicant: not a payments company or an exchange, but a bank owned by a media and entertainment conglomerate, applying the charter to closed-loop spending on games, anime, and subscriptions rather than open payments. That is the signal worth tracking, not the charter itself.
