Coinbase has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Coinbase National Trust Company, the crypto exchange said on Monday. The OCC approved the application last Friday, according to Coinbase.
The charter will allow Coinbase to expand its custody business, which holds digital assets for institutional clients, under a federal regulatory framework. The company said the charter will bring "clear and consistent federal uniformity" to its custody operations.
"Custody is foundational to our business," Coinbase said, describing itself as the leading crypto custodian globally. CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted on Monday that "trusted custody is essential for bringing more of the financial system onchain," calling the trust company "another step for building that foundation."
Coinbase has offered regulated custody since 2018, when its Coinbase Custody Trust Company obtained a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services. The new national trust company builds on that foundation while bringing its trust activities into a consistent federal framework, the company said.
The approval comes seven months after the OCC gave Coinbase conditional approval in April, when the company said it was not becoming a commercial bank and would not take retail deposits or engage in fractional reserve banking. Coinbase first applied for the charter last year.
A growing list of crypto trust charters
Coinbase joins other crypto firms that have obtained national trust charters. Circle won final approval in July for a trust bank to manage the reserves behind its USDC stablecoin, and Ripple received final approval last month for a trust bank behind its RLUSD stablecoin.
Others are still awaiting final approval. Jack Dorsey's Block applied for a charter to custody Bitcoin in September, Kraken parent Payward filed its own application in May, and a trust company linked to Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial won conditional approval in August for a charter tied to its USD1 stablecoin, Reuters reported.
The approvals have drawn opposition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has argued that the OCC's crypto charter approvals, including Coinbase's, are illegal, and the Independent Community Bankers of America has sued the OCC in an effort to stop crypto firms from entering banking through what it describes as a side door.
