Sony Bank Gains Preliminary OCC Approval for New York Stablecoin Trust

Sony Bank's online unit has obtained preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create a national trust bank subsidiary that would handle dollar-pegged stablecoins.

Sony establishes Connectia Trust as a fully owned New York subsidiary. The entity, called Connectia Trust, National Association, is slated to operate from New York with $40 million in initial capital. Sony Bank will hold full ownership, the company’s financial arm disclosed in a statement.

The new structure aims to facilitate issuance and oversight of stablecoins. All activity stays frozen until regulators deliver final clearances.

Stablecoin market volumes reach record levels amid rising competition. Last month’s stablecoin transfers climbed to an all-time high of $1.79 trillion, up 63 percent from the prior month and more than twice the figure from a year earlier, according to Visa’s onchain dashboard. Tokens linked to the dollar represent over 99 percent of the roughly $311 billion total market value measured by DeFiLlama.

USDT and USDC alone command approximately $250 billion of that capitalization. Several other prospective entrants, among them Stripe-owned Bridge, Paxos and Circle Internet, have likewise earned conditional OCC nods for comparable federally chartered trust banks linked to stablecoin initiatives.

Final approvals required before any stablecoin issuance can begin. “Sony's trust bank will not begin operations, including stablecoin issuance, until it receives all required approvals, including final approval from the OCC,” Sony Financial said. The provisional green light offers no assurance on timing or actual token rollout.

The development builds on Sony’s prior blueprint for a stablecoin geared toward gaming and anime transactions. It coincides with federal lawmakers shaping rules through the GENIUS Act to create an overarching national regime for payment stablecoins.