“Crypto.com applied to US banking regulator OCC for a national trust bank charter, a step it says would expand federally supervised crypto custody for institutions.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
In Friday’s announcement, the exchange framed the filing as an extension of its regulated, security-first push for large customers — ETF sponsors, corporates and advisers — focused on custody and staking-adjacent trust services across multiple blockchains. The company did not provide a review timeline and said the application does not affect operations at Crypto.com Custody Trust Company, its New Hampshire-chartered, non-depository trust that already serves institutions as a qualified custodian.
A national trust bank is a limited-purpose national bank supervised by the OCC for trust-company powers. In practice, it can provide custody, safekeeping and other fiduciary services nationwide; it is not a full-service commercial bank and does not take FDIC-insured deposits or make traditional loans. The OCC’s framework recognizes chartering banks that limit operations to trust activities under 12 USC § 27(a), and its trust-operations materials outline the fiduciary standards and recordkeeping requirements that apply.
There is a recent precedent. In 2021, the OCC conditionally approved Anchorage Trust Company’s conversion to Anchorage Digital Bank, NA, pairing the decision with a detailed operating agreement — an example of the bespoke conditions attached to digital-asset trust charters. The OCC also granted preliminary conditional approval that year to Paxos National Trust in New York.
Other large crypto firms have moved down this path in 2025.
Coinbase filed earlier this month to organize Coinbase National Trust Company, a de novo, non-insured national trust company headquartered in New York, according to its application posted on the OCC’s digital-assets licensing portal. Circle applied on June 30 to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, NA to bring USDC reserves oversight and institutional custody under an OCC charter.
Not every route is federal.
Gemini Trust Company operates under a New York limited-purpose trust charter issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Oct. 5, 2015 — state supervision rather than an OCC national trust bank — and remains a reference point for the state-charter model alongside BitLicense regimes.
For retail users, nothing changes immediately.
A filing is not an approval, and Crypto.com’s proposal targets institutional custody rather than consumer deposit accounts. If an OCC charter is approved and stood up, the effects would likely be indirect: federal supervision can make it simpler for large counterparties to use a provider’s trust services under one rule set, which in turn can influence market “plumbing” visible to everyday investors over time — how assets are segregated and verified, what products appear via ETFs or advisers and how liquidity moves across venues. It would not turn the exchange into a deposit-taking bank.
The OCC generally does not comment on pending applications. Past crypto approvals have come with tailored conditions and timelines, underscoring that outcomes are not assured and that the scope of any charter is defined case-by-case.
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US President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao months after he said he’d asked for a pardon.
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