Crypto.com files for a national trust bank charter with the U.S. OCC to expand digital asset custody and ETF services

￰0￱ has officially filed for a national trust charter with the ￰1￱ of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), according to a company statement released ￰2￱ company says it’s looking to grow its crypto custody services, especially for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and treasury ￰3￱ is already registered in New Hampshire as a non-depository trust company, but that’s ￰4￱ application throws ￰5￱ into a growing list of crypto companies that want federal ￰6￱ list includes Ripple Labs, BitGo, and Circle Internet ￰7￱ goal? To be treated like real financial institutions and finally escape the mess of state-by-state ￰8￱ Marszalek, the CEO of Crypto. com, said : “Building the ￰9￱ product and service portfolio through regulated and secure offerings has been our focus since Day One.” Trump’s comeback drives fresh push for charters The recent wave of charter applications isn’t ￰10￱ picked up after Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this ￰11￱ his administration came back in, regulators have pulled back hard, easing pressure on crypto and handing the industry real ￰12￱ major victory?

The first-ever federal framework for stablecoin ￰13￱ was the sign many firms were waiting ￰14￱ now they’re lining up to get federally chartered before the next crackdown comes from somewhere ￰15￱ the OCC handles charters, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve, specifically whether these new trust banks can get access to the Fed’s payment ￰16￱ week, Christopher Waller, a Federal Reserve Governor, said he wants staff to explore something called “payment accounts,” a simplified Fed account that gives crypto firms limited access to systems like Fedwire, without making them full member ￰17￱ also talked about “skinny” master accounts, another version of restricted Fed access that could work for fintech and crypto firms.

“The revolution transforming payments is demanding change everywhere,” Waller said during the Fed’s payments innovation conference in ￰18￱ now, only banks with full master accounts get access to the Fed’s rails, but that could ￰19￱ and Anchorage fight for access while the Fed rethinks the rules Anchorage Digital Bank already holds a national trust charter. They’ve applied for a master account, but it’s still sitting in the Fed’s request database. Meanwhile, Custodia Bank, based in Wyoming, applied way back in October 2020 and got tired of ￰20￱ they sued the Federal Reserve Board and the Kansas City Fed, calling the delay “a patently unlawful” ￰21￱ ￰22￱ firm, PayServices Bank, went after the San Francisco Fed in a similar case, and also lost.

Still, Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia, wasn’t surprised by Waller’s speech. “Custodia welcomes the Fed’s acknowledgment of the importance of payment-only banks,” she said on Tuesday. “We knew all along that a big but quiet faction at the Fed supported us, and it’s terrific to see Governor Waller publicly acknowledge this.” Even with lawsuits behind them, these firms (and now Crypto. com) are focused on the same question: how to connect crypto to the Fed’s network without needing full bank ￰23￱ Fed says it’s working to better understand the mix of traditional finance, decentralized systems, stablecoins, and tokenized ￰24￱ includes figuring out how to deal with AI-powered payment systems, which were also discussed at this week’s Fed conference.

Don’t just read crypto ￰25￱ ￰26￱ to our newsletter. It's free .