Coinbase gets final OCC approval for its national trust bank

Coinbase said on Monday, Nov. 9, that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval last Friday to Coinbase National Trust Company, the federally chartered trust bank that will hold its crypto custody business. The OCC had granted the unit preliminary conditional approval in April.

The sign-off takes the New York-based bank past the stage at which the regulator could still modify, suspend or rescind the charter. Under the OCC's April decision letter, final approval and authorization to commence busineWhat the federal charter covers, and what stays outside itss come only once all preopening requirements are met. Coinbase did not say when the trust company will open or when client accounts will move to it, Unchained reported.

What the federal charter covers, and what stays outside it

The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global and plans to offer digital asset custody as a fiduciary, mainly to institutional clients. Custody customers will be able to accept, hold and transfer fiat currency and digital assets inside their custodial accounts. The fiat will sit in "for benefit of" accounts at third-party banks, according to the OCC letter.

Staking, Prime Trading and Prime Financing stay with Coinbase affiliates. The trust bank may introduce its custody clients to those services as a finder but will not provide them itself. It also cannot take deposits or make loans the way a full-service bank does, CoinDesk noted.

Custody now runs through Coinbase Custody Trust Company, a limited purpose trust chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services in 2018. The OCC letter says Coinbase will migrate that entire business to the federal bank over a three-year de novo period. In a statement emailed to Unchained, Coinbase said the charter "lays the foundation for potential future payment and stablecoin services," without describing them.

Coinbase joins Circle and Ripple with a full charter

Few crypto-native firms hold a final national trust charter. Circle won final OCC approval for Circle National Trust in July, and the regulator cleared Ripple's federal trust bank last month. Many others hold only conditional approvals, a wave CoinDesk linked to the GENIUS Act, which opened a path for federal trusts to issue compliant stablecoins.

In a statement quoted by CoinDesk, Vice Chairman Ryan VanGrack said the company had spent years asking for clear rules and rigorous oversight, and that the approval "puts more of our business behind that commitment." Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said Coinbase "has always pursued best-in-class regulatory oversight and that is what we are getting with the OCC," per Unchained.

The charters still face a court fight. The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal court in Washington on Oct. 2, arguing the regulator lacks authority to grant national trust charters to crypto firms that do not mainly act as fiduciaries. On the legislative side, Congress has until Jan. 3 to pass the CLARITY Act, the stalled market structure bill.

The business Coinbase is entering is already large. As of Dec. 31, 2025, OCC-supervised uninsured national trust banks reported $7.0 trillion in assets under administration, $1.7 trillion of it in custody and safekeeping accounts, according to the April letter.