Nikolas Sargeant
Coinbase has applied for a U.S. National Trust Charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to bring its crypto operations under a single federal regulator. This initiative will streamline compliance and enable the company to operate under a single federal regulator, rather than holding fragmented state licenses. The move comes as Coinbase strengthens its position in traditional finance partnerships, recently announcing a groundbreaking collaboration with JPMorgan Chase that will enable Chase credit card holders to purchase cryptocurrency directly through Coinbase starting this fall.
Greg Tusar, Coinbase vice president of institutional product, stated that an OCC charter will streamline oversight for new offerings and enable continued innovation to integrate digital assets into traditional finance. A federal trust charter would give the company more flexibility to launch new financial services such as crypto payments without needing state-by-state approvals. Coinbase's move follows a slew of crypto companies, including Circle, Ripple and Paxos, applying for federal supervision this year.
The company is seeking this banking charter from the OCC to grow its institutional custody business. Despite pursuing the charter, Coinbase has emphasized it has no ambitions to become a traditional bank. The exchange presented the charter as a way to align services with established financial rails and said approval would allow expansion beyond custody. The partnership with JPMorgan aligns with the bank's broader strategic push into digital assets, following CEO Jamie Dimon's recent announcements about developing stablecoin offerings and exploring crypto-backed lending services targeting Bitcoin and Ethereum collateral by 2026.
Coinbase's move follows a slew of crypto companies, including Circle, Ripple and Paxos, applying for federal supervision this year. The combination of federal charter pursuit and major banking partnerships like JPMorgan represents a significant shift in the relationship between traditional finance and cryptocurrency. Together, these developments signal Coinbase's strategic effort to bridge the gap between cryptocurrency services and traditional finance while operating under unified federal oversight, positioning itself at the center of the emerging crypto-tradfi convergence.
