Coinbase said on 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 previous Friday.
The charter will allow Coinbase to expand its custody business—which holds digital assets for institutional clients—under a federal regulatory framework, the company said. It described the change as bringing “clear and consistent federal uniformity” to its custody operations.
What the approval 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 new national trust company builds on that business while putting its trust activities under a consistent federal framework.
The final approval follows conditional OCC approval in April, seven months earlier. At that time, Coinbase said it was not becoming a commercial bank and would not accept retail deposits or engage in fractional-reserve banking. It first applied for the charter in 2025.
“Trusted custody is essential for bringing more of the financial system onchain,” CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on November 9, calling the trust company another step toward that foundation. That is Coinbase’s stated rationale, not evidence that the charter has already increased onchain adoption.
A broader charter push—and a legal challenge
Coinbase joins other crypto firms that have secured national trust charters:
- Circle received final approval in July 2026 for a trust bank to manage reserves backing its USDC stablecoin.
- Ripple received final approval in October 2026 for a trust bank behind its RLUSD stablecoin.
Other applications had not reached final approval at the time of the report. Jack Dorsey’s Block applied in September for a charter to custody Bitcoin, while Kraken parent Payward filed in May. Reuters reported that a trust company linked to Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial received conditional approval in August for a charter tied to its USD1 stablecoin.
The push has drawn opposition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 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, seeking to stop crypto firms from entering banking through what the group describes as a “side door.”
The reported development is a regulatory milestone for Coinbase’s custody business. The source does not establish that it has already produced greater institutional usage or resolved the legal objections to crypto trust charters.
Original report: Decrypt, published November 9, 2026, at 19:50:36 UTC+08:00.