Coinbase (COIN) Stock Wins Conditional OCC Approval for Federal Banking Charter

TLDR

• Coinbase received conditional approval from the OCC to charter Coinbase National Trust Company
• The charter covers custody and market infrastructure — not retail deposits or fractional reserve banking
• Coinbase must complete several procedural steps before final approval is granted
• The federal charter is expected to open up a broader institutional client base
• Existing NYDFS BitLicense and state trust charter remain fully in place

Coinbase (COIN) has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Coinbase National Trust Company as a federally chartered trust firm.

The OCC charter is specifically structured around custody and market infrastructure. Coinbase will not take retail deposits or operate as a traditional fractional reserve bank under this framework.

Coinbase submitted its application for the OCC’s national trust charter back in October. The company already holds a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services, which covers digital asset custody at the state level through its institutional arm, Coinbase Prime.

Coinbase Global, Inc., COIN

In short, the OCC stamp opens doors that the state-level charter simply couldn’t.

Coinbase’s institutional business was managing $245.7 billion in assets under management as of June 2025 — roughly 7% of the total crypto market, according to its charter application.

What Coinbase Still Needs to Do

Conditional approval is not final approval. Before the charter becomes fully active, Coinbase must hold its first board meeting, adopt bylaws, establish payment rails, and pass a pre-opening OCC exam.

The exchange confirmed it will work closely with OCC staff to work through those requirements.

The existing NYDFS BitLicense and state trust charter remain fully operational in the meantime. Coinbase, Inc. continues to operate under NYDFS oversight without any change.

Who Else Is in the Queue

Coinbase is not alone in pursuing this path. The OCC granted conditional approval to several other crypto firms late last year, including BitGo, Circle Internet Group, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ripple, and Paxos.

More recently, Morgan Stanley, Citadel Securities-backed EDX Markets, and World Liberty Financial — the Trump family’s largest crypto venture — have also filed for a national trust charter.

The federal charter also lays the groundwork for new payment products and related financial services, with institutional partners and individual customers cited as the primary beneficiaries.

Congress has advanced market structure legislation, but federal oversight for crypto custodians has remained fragmented. The OCC approval addresses that gap at the institutional level without waiting for full legislative action.

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