Coinbase Wins Full Federal Trust Bank Charter, Putting Its Crypto Custody Under OCC Oversight

Coinbase now runs a fully chartered national trust bank. The exchange said on Monday that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal regulator for national banks, gave final approval to Coinbase National Trust Company last Friday, November 6.

The decision upgrades the conditional approval Coinbase won in April. It moves the largest US crypto exchange's institutional custody business under a single federal regulator and puts Coinbase alongside Circle and Ripple, which won their own final approvals earlier this year.

The news landed on a rough day for prices. Bitcoin fell to about $73,761 overnight, its lowest level since August, and more than $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in 24 hours, CoinDesk reported, citing CoinGlass data.

What the OCC approved

According to Cointelegraph, the OCC's records show the charter took effect on Friday. Coinbase applied in October 2025 and received preliminary approval in April 2026.

The charter lets Coinbase National Trust Company hold digital assets on behalf of clients as a fiduciary, Cointelegraph reported, citing the OCC's preliminary approval letter.

It is not a full banking licence. As CoinDesk explains, a national trust can offer federally regulated custody and payments services, but it does not take deposits or make loans the way a full-service bank does.

When the conditional approval came in April, Coinbase said it was not becoming a commercial bank and would not take retail deposits or engage in fractional reserve banking, Decrypt reported. CoinDesk says the final sign-off followed months of building compliance systems, hiring staff and regulatory review.

What Coinbase plans to do with it

"Custody is foundational to our business," Coinbase wrote in its announcement, describing itself as the leading crypto custodian globally. The company said the charter will "bring clear and consistent federal uniformity" to its custody operations.

According to its charter application, as summarized by Cointelegraph, Coinbase plans to give institutional clients segregated custody accounts with access to staking, financing and trading through other Coinbase entities.

The application also outlined plans to explore digital asset payment products, plus custody services that would let clients interact with select smart contracts.

"We've spent years asking for clear rules and rigorous oversight, and today's approval of our national trust charter puts more of our business behind that commitment," Coinbase Vice Chairman Ryan VanGrack said in a statement quoted by CoinDesk.

CEO Brian Armstrong kept it shorter on X: "Trusted custody is essential for bringing more of the financial system onchain."

From a New York trust to a federal one

Coinbase is not new to trust regulation. Its Coinbase Custody Trust Company has held a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services since 2018, a year after Coinbase Inc. received its New York BitLicense.

Coinbase says the new national trust builds on that foundation while bringing its trust activities into one consistent federal framework. In practice, a federal banking regulator now supervises the custodian that holds assets for Coinbase's institutional clients.

If you want a refresher on why it matters who actually holds the keys, our guide to crypto custody covers the basics.

Part of a wave of crypto trust charters

Coinbase is the latest in a growing line. Circle won final approval in July for a trust bank that manages the reserves behind its USDC stablecoin, and Ripple received final approval last month for a trust bank behind its RLUSD stablecoin, Decrypt reported.

Cointelegraph lists BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos among the other firms holding OCC national trust charters. Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge have conditional approval, while Kraken and EDX Markets are still pursuing charters.

Decrypt, citing Reuters, adds that Jack Dorsey's Block applied in September for a charter to custody bitcoin, Kraken parent Payward filed in May, and a trust company linked to the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial won conditional approval in August for a charter tied to its USD1 stablecoin.

CoinDesk ties the rush to the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law that cleared a path for federal trusts to issue compliant stablecoins. The OCC has been writing the rulebook for that system, including its final GENIUS Act stablecoin rule.

Why it matters

For years, US regulators in banking, securities and derivatives resisted letting crypto-native firms in and often treated them with distrust, CoinDesk notes. A full federal trust charter for the biggest US exchange shows how far that position has turned.

Coinbase frames the charter as a bridge to traditional finance. It called the approval an important step toward aligning digital-asset custody with the financial infrastructure that institutions and individuals already know and rely on.

The timing also fits Coinbase's business picture. In its latest quarterly results, the company posted a $719 million profit, but its shares sank to a two-year low as trading slowed. Custody is one of the businesses Coinbase can grow that relies less on how busy traders are.

The pushback

Not everyone welcomes crypto firms into the banking system. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has argued that the OCC's crypto charter approvals, including Coinbase's, are illegal, according to Decrypt.

The Independent Community Bankers of America has gone further and sued the OCC. The group claims the regulator overstepped its authority by granting trust charters to crypto firms, which it describes as letting them into banking through a side door.

That lawsuit is the main legal question hanging over Coinbase's charter and the others like it.

What comes next

None of the reports we reviewed give a launch date for the new services described in Coinbase's application, such as payment products or smart-contract custody.

The next things to watch are the community bankers' lawsuit, final decisions for pending applicants such as Kraken, Block, Crypto.com and Bridge, and how the OCC's GENIUS Act rules shape which of these trusts end up issuing stablecoins.

For now, the largest US exchange has the same kind of federal charter as Circle and Ripple, at a moment when the market itself is under pressure. Sources: CoinDesk, Decrypt, Cointelegraph and Coinbase's own announcement.