News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
New York's banking and insurance supervisor. It has run the BitLicense regime since 2015 and charters the limited purpose trust companies through which a large part of the American stablecoin and digital asset custody business is supervised.
The supervisor of state-chartered banks, insurers and licensed financial services firms in New York, formed in 2011 by merging the state banking and insurance departments. Its significance to this beat rests on two instruments. The BitLicense, introduced in 2015, was the first bespoke state licence for virtual currency business and remains among the most demanding. The limited purpose trust charter, issued under the New York Banking Law, lets a company provide fiduciary, custody and asset-management services without taking consumer deposits or making loans, and has become the perch of choice for stablecoin issuers and digital asset custodians: Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo and Circle all hold one. Because New York supervision is examined rather than merely registered, the charter carries weight beyond the state.
Developments in which New York State Department of Financial Services is a named party, newest first.
A 760 page proposal of 1 October opens adviser and fund crypto custody to state trust companies and, as a fallback, to advisers themselves, and treats permitted payment stablecoins as funds.
The NYDFS has granted Circle Internet Trust Company a limited purpose trust charter, putting the USDC issuer under the New York Banking Law a decade after it took the first BitLicense.
The New York State Department of Financial Services granted Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, trading as Circle New York Trust, a limited purpose trust charter on 31 July 2026, permitting fiduciary, custody and asset-management services under the New York Banking Law. It sits alongside the national trust bank approval the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Circle on 10 July 2026.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
Unsubscribe in one click.