Source published November 9, 2026, at 19:50:36 UTC+8.
Coinbase said on Monday, November 9, 2026, that it had received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Coinbase National Trust Company. According to the exchange, the regulator approved its application the preceding Friday.
The charter gives Coinbase a federal regulatory framework for expanding its custody business, which holds digital assets on behalf of institutional clients. It is a development in regulated custody infrastructure—not an announcement that Coinbase is becoming a retail deposit-taking bank.
What the charter changes
Coinbase has offered regulated custody since 2018, when Coinbase Custody Trust Company received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services. The company said the national trust company builds on that foundation and brings its trust activities into a consistent federal framework.
“Custody is foundational to our business,” Coinbase said, describing itself as the leading crypto custodian globally. That leadership claim is the company’s own characterization. It said the new charter would “bring clear and consistent federal uniformity” to its custody operations.
CEO Brian Armstrong framed the approval as part of the infrastructure needed to move financial activity onto blockchains. “Trusted custody is essential for bringing more of the financial system onchain,” he wrote on November 9, calling the trust company “another step for building that foundation.”
A trust charter, not a commercial-bank expansion
Final approval followed the OCC’s conditional approval in April 2026, seven months earlier. At that stage, Coinbase said it was not becoming a commercial bank and would neither accept retail deposits nor engage in fractional-reserve banking. It first applied for the charter in 2025.
The documented scope is therefore institutional custody under a federal framework. The announcement describes regulatory approval and plans to expand that business; it does not establish new customer adoption or onchain activity.
Where Coinbase fits in the wider charter landscape
Other crypto firms were pursuing similar regulatory structures, though their applications served different purposes and were at different stages:
- Circle received final approval in July 2026 for a trust bank to manage the reserves backing USDC.
- Ripple received final approval in October 2026 for a trust bank behind its RLUSD stablecoin.
- Block, led by Jack Dorsey, applied in September 2026 for a charter to custody Bitcoin.
- Payward, Kraken’s parent company, filed its application in May 2026.
- A trust company linked to World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-backed project, received conditional approval in August 2026 for a charter tied to USD1, Reuters reported.
Legal opposition remains
The charter approvals have faced challenges. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has argued that the OCC’s crypto charter approvals, including Coinbase’s, are illegal. The Independent Community Bankers of America has also sued the OCC in an effort to prevent crypto firms from entering banking through what the group describes as a “side door.”
For readers tracking the ecosystem, the key distinction is between an approved federal custody structure, applications still awaiting final approval, and the separate legal opposition to the OCC’s approach.