Coinbase wins final OCC approval for national trust custody charter

What happened

Coinbase has secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to conduct cryptocurrency custody through Coinbase National Trust Company, a federally supervised trust bank. The exchange announced the clearance on Nov. 9, and both The Daily Hodl and CryptoSlate reported the development. The OCC's application register lists Nov. 6 as the charter's effective date, allowing custody operations to run under federal fiduciary oversight rather than the state-by-state licensing arrangements Coinbase has used until now.

A final conditional approval letter dated Nov. 6 states that the bank met its preopening requirements and was authorized to open on Nov. 9. The letter permits custody of crypto assets in a fiduciary capacity, which places the new entity's custody services under fiduciary duties and related standards of conduct. The OCC's April decision described the institution as uninsured, and the final approval keeps it within a limited trust-company scope.

The approval also establishes how existing clients reach the new entity. Under a Sept. 1 agreement between Coinbase Custody Trust Company in New York and the national bank, custody-service rights and responsibilities are to shift gradually from the state-chartered trust company to the federal one. The OCC approved the acquisition and assumption of those accounts and assets using an exemption from certain restrictions on transactions between banks and their affiliates. Neither the regulator nor Coinbase has disclosed how many accounts have moved or when individual transfers will be finished.

Why it matters

For Coinbase, the charter replaces a patchwork of state licenses with one federal framework for institutional custody, a change the company says brings consistency to the business. Rick Schonberg, Coinbase's head of prime trading and custody, described the step as aligning digital-asset custody with the traditional financial infrastructure that institutions and individuals already rely on, according to The Daily Hodl. Because the bank holds assets in a fiduciary capacity, its custody operations carry enforceable duties that ordinary exchange custody arrangements do not. The scope remains narrow: the approval covers trust-company activities and related work set out in the business plan, not a full commercial banking license or deposit insurance.

What the data shows

The final letter sets out conditions that override those imposed in April. During the bank's first three operating years, significant departures from its business plan require 60 days' prior notice and written OCC non-objection, with the letter specifically naming material changes to products and services and any offering of transactional services to custody-account customers. The bank must also maintain at least $60 million in tier 1 capital, prescribed liquid-asset buffers and a separate reserve covering 180 days of operating expenses over that period. CryptoSlate noted that the dates mark legal milestones rather than a verified operating launch, and that the three-year migration horizon comes from the April plan. The Daily Hodl reported Coinbase's market capitalization at $36.03 billion and its share price at $136.10, up nearly 1% at the time of writing.

Background

The OCC issued a preliminary decision on April 2, and that plan envisioned moving the entire custody business into the national bank over its three-year initial operating period. Coinbase has for years operated under New York licenses, including a BitLicense and a limited purpose trust charter, and says it has safeguarded digital assets for more than 14 years while positioning itself as the leading crypto custodian. The charter arrives amid wider debate over federal approvals for crypto trust banks: community bankers filed a lawsuit in October challenging the OCC's approvals of such charters.

What to watch

The pace of account migration is the clearest open question, since no completed-transfer figures or client-by-client schedule have been published. How the OCC conditions are applied in practice, particularly around any transactional services offered to custody customers, will also shape how far the charter's permissions extend. The October lawsuit from community bankers adds a legal variable to the federal trust charter path Coinbase has now taken.

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