Coinbase said on November 9, 2026, that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had granted final approval to charter Coinbase National Trust Company. According to the exchange, the OCC approved its application the preceding Friday.
The development concerns the regulatory framework for institutional custody—not a reported change in crypto prices, liquidity or market sentiment.
What the charter covers
Coinbase said the charter would allow it to expand its business holding digital assets for institutional clients under a federal regulatory framework. The company described custody as foundational to its business and said the charter would bring “clear and consistent federal uniformity” to those operations.
CEO Brian Armstrong said on November 9 that trusted custody was essential to bringing more of the financial system onchain, describing the trust company as another step toward that foundation.
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 arrangement while placing its trust activities within a consistent federal framework.
Final approval followed conditional OCC approval in April 2026. 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 national charter in 2025.
Other crypto firms pursue trust charters
As reported in the November 9 article, Coinbase joined several crypto companies pursuing or obtaining 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.
- Block, led by Jack Dorsey, applied in September 2026 for a charter to custody Bitcoin.
- Payward, Kraken’s parent company, filed an application in May 2026.
- A trust company linked to Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial received conditional approval in August 2026 for a charter tied to its USD1 stablecoin, Reuters reported.
Regulatory opposition remains
The approvals have faced opposition. Senator 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 sued the OCC to try to stop crypto firms from entering banking through what the group describes as a “side door.”
The reported development is an expansion of federally chartered crypto custody infrastructure, alongside continuing legal opposition. The article supplies no price, flow or on-chain evidence from which to infer a market response.
Original publication: November 9, 2026, at 19:50:36 UTC+08:00. Read the original article at Decrypt.