Why Agora Filed for an OCC Bank Charter: Nick van Eck on AUSD, GENIUS Act, and the Charter Race

Why file now

Van Eck points to the GENIUS Act, which he says passed last year and gave the OCC federal oversight of stablecoin issuance in the US. He calls it striking that the stablecoin market is at $300 billion with no active US regulatory framework, and he expects 2027 and 2028 to "start to go gangbusters."

For AUSD, he says, the charter would allow Agora to serve US customers directly; today it operates under a license out of Bermuda. Issuance moving on-shore is set to run through Fireblocks, Coinbase, Kraken, Circle Mint and Cryptio.

Being the metal

"You are the metal or you lose" is a saying at Agora, van Eck says. He argues the 50-plus stablecoin neobanks use the same stack and are "competing to death on CAC," so Agora wants to sit underneath them. He says white-labeled stablecoins were accelerated because they were in vogue but are "a feature, not the platform."

Partner, not deposit bank

Van Eck says issuers make good complementary partners to deposit-taking banks, and Agora will not take deposits. It works with Erebor and other banks, and can partner with banks in the US or Europe to offer dollar or euro accounts in customers' names. He also noted that Mercury got conditional approval to be a deposit-taking bank.

Building the team

Agora already has four people on its compliance team and a full accounting and FinOps staff, van Eck says, and hired its first marketing employee two weeks ago. Over the next few months, he says, the company will focus on growth "for the first time."