Coinbase’s national trust company received final approval to open on Nov. 9, the company announced, as federal regulators continue to open more avenues for crypto companies to operate under US rules and congressional investigators seek records behind those decisions.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had granted preliminary conditional approval in April. Coinbase said the charter gives its custody business a consistent federal framework.
Senate scrutiny
Lawmakers have been questioning how federal regulators are using existing authority to expand crypto companies’ reach. In a May 18 letter to the OCC, Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged at least nine crypto trust-charter approvals, including Coinbase’s earlier conditional approval. She asked for the applications, the legal analyses behind the approvals and any related communications between OCC officials and the White House or Trump family.
Lawmakers also want to know how regulators justified new trust charters, how crypto companies handled compliance and what dealings they had with people tied to President Donald Trump’s administration.
Blumenthal demands records
Four days before Coinbase’s announcement, Sen. Richard Blumenthal renewed demands for records from Binance, Tether and two Trump-linked ventures. He gave them until Jan. 4, 2027, to turn over the requested records voluntarily and warned that his subcommittee could take other steps to obtain them.
