BNY Adds USDC Custody to Digital Asset Platform in Expanded Circle Partnership
BNY announced it has integrated USDC into its Digital Asset Custody platform, deepening its partnership with Circle following the passage of the GENIUS Act. The move extends BNY's existing role as a reserve custodian for Circle into active stablecoin custody services for institutional clients.
Yuri Konnov
The custody relationship between the two firms predates this announcement by four years. In March 2022, Circle selected BNY Mellon as a primary custodian for USDC reserves, at a time when the stablecoin had over $52 billion in circulation. The June 2026 expansion converts that reserve custody role into a client-facing service layer, giving BNY's institutional network — which serves over 90% of Fortune 100 companies and nearly all of the top 100 banks globally — direct programmatic access to USDC.
The announcement arrived roughly eleven months after the GENIUS Act was enacted on July 18, 2025, establishing a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoin activities in the United States. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has since proposed implementing rules under a new 12 CFR 15, covering reserve assets, redemption standards, risk management, custody requirements, and capital backstop provisions applicable to national banks, federal savings associations, and qualifying nonbank issuers. BNY, as a nationally chartered institution, falls within that regulatory perimeter.
The stablecoin market context gives the announcement additional weight. USDC carries a market capitalization of over $73 billion, making it the second-largest stablecoin by that measure. Standard Chartered has projected the broader stablecoin market could expand from roughly $300 billion to $2 trillion by the end of 2028, while Citigroup's base case places the figure at $4 trillion by 2030, according to CoinDesk's coverage of the announcement. Both projections are third-party estimates rather than primary market measurements.
BNY's stablecoin move fits within a broader pattern of digital asset infrastructure buildout at the bank. In July 2025, BNY and Goldman Sachs jointly launched a mirrored tokenization system for money market fund shares. Northern Trust Asset Management followed on March 2, 2026, launching a tokenized share class for its NIF Treasury Instruments Portfolio using BNY and Goldman Sachs DAP infrastructure. Baillie Gifford's June 2026 BAGEY tokenized bond fund, targeting roughly a 7% yield, also relies on BNY for custody and infrastructure across both Solana and Ethereum. The OCC's GENIUS Act implementation bulletin provides the regulatory backdrop against which each of these products now operates.
Several material details were absent from BNY's announcement. The press release did not identify which specific institutional clients have activated USDC custody, the volume of USDC already held or transacted through the platform, or the fee structure applied to mint and burn instructions. BNY stated plans to expand support to additional stablecoin issuers over time but did not name those issuers, specify a timeline, or indicate whether any regulatory approvals would be required before onboarding them. The announcement also did not disclose the technical blockchain infrastructure — public, private, or hybrid — on which client USDC wallets are maintained, nor did it address how USDC held in custody interacts with BNY's existing tokenized deposit infrastructure, which operates on a private permissioned blockchain.
The immediate effect of the announcement is that BNY's institutional clients gained a regulated, bank-custodied pathway to hold, mint, and redeem USDC as of June 29, 2026. What the announcement does not establish is a disclosed client roster, a transaction volume figure, a named timeline for adding competing stablecoin issuers, or any indication of how the service will be governed under the OCC's forthcoming final rules under 12 CFR 15, which remain in proposed form.
