Andreessen Horowitz-Backed OpenReserve Gets Preliminary OCC Approval to Form National Bank

OpenReserve has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a full-service national bank, moving the Andreessen Horowitz-backed company into the preopening stage of the federal charter process.

The approval requires the proposed bank to secure at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital after organizational and preopening costs, according to an OCC letter issued Wednesday. OpenReserve must also keep its Tier 1 leverage ratio at 12% or higher throughout its first three years in operation.

However, the bank cannot begin operating on the preliminary approval alone. It must complete the OCC’s preopening requirements and obtain final clearance. OpenReserve is also expected to secure Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) deposit insurance and apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock.

OpenReserve Plans Banking and Onchain Services Under One Institution

OpenReserve, founded in 2025 by Richard Correia and Diwakar Choubey, says its infrastructure will use a programmable core ledger with native onchain settlement.

The proposed bank plans to provide deposits and lending alongside payments, treasury services, and foreign correspondent banking. Its planned digital-asset offerings include tokenized deposit products and custody.

OpenReserve also intends to establish a wholly owned subsidiary that would issue and custody reserve-backed U.S. dollar stablecoins, facilitate their conversion, and handle related payments. OpenReserve has not filed a separate application for the subsidiary, according to the OCC letter.

OpenReserve previously raised $25 million in a seed financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto. Acrew, Jump Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Clocktower, Wintermute Ventures, Quona, Zero Knowledge Ventures, and AAF Management also backed the financing.

a16z crypto has backed OpenReserve’s approach, saying greater access to banking options and technological advances from new banks could benefit consumers and companies globally.

Crypto Firms Gain Ground in OCC Charter Process

The OpenReserve decision comes amid a broader series of conditional approvals for crypto-focused institutions under Comptroller Jonathan Gould. Gould has said companies working with novel technologies should have a path to becoming federally supervised banks.

The OCC has received 40 de novo charter applications since 2025 and approved 21. Separately, Coinbase, BitGo, Circle, Paxos, and Ripple are among the crypto companies that have obtained conditional approval for national trust bank charters.

Revolut also received preliminary conditional approval to establish a national bank on Wednesday. The decision followed the OCC’s approval of Trump-backed World Liberty Trust Company several weeks earlier.

However, the broader charter push has faced opposition from Senator Elizabeth Warren. In May, Warren accused the OCC of awarding national trust charters to crypto companies that could seek to conduct business beyond the limited activities allowed by the National Bank Act. Her criticism addressed Circle, Ripple, Fidelity, Paxos, Coinbase, and BitGo.