Coinbase wins full US trust-bank charter as crypto deepens ties to traditional finance
What's the deal? Coinbase has received final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to become a nationally chartered trust bank. The regulator signed off last week, the largest US crypto exchange said, following conditional approval earlier this year after Coinbase applied in October 2025.
What changes in practice? The charter lets Coinbase expand custody services, move deeper into payments, and issue its own stablecoins, as well as help other crypto firms issue and manage stablecoins. It does not allow Coinbase to take deposits or make loans — this is a custody charter, not a full banking license.
Why now? Coinbase's crypto revenue fell 35% to $1.22 billion in the third quarter, the third straight quarterly decline amid lower crypto prices. The company is pursuing what analysts call an "everything exchange" strategy, pushing into equities, commodities, prediction markets, and tokenized assets.
What's the endgame? Coinbase already holds a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services, but the federal license lets it roll out products faster and court institutional adoption. "This approval shows that digital assets have become a permanent part of the financial system," Coinbase vice president Ryan VanGrack told BloombergDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The firm has partnered with Citigroup on fiat-to-stablecoin conversion and keeps a revenue-sharing agreement with CircleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the issuer of USDC.
What could go wrong? The legal basis for the charter wave remains under challenge. Community-bank group ICBA sued the OCC in October, arguing the agency exceeded its authority. Despite the news, COIN stock fell more than 2% to around $132 in Monday's pre-market session.
The signal: Coinbase joins Circle, which won final approval in July, and Ripple, which crossed the line in October, in a rapid expansion of crypto firms gaining federal trust charters since the start of President Donald Trump's second administration. The trend marks digital-asset companies moving steadily into the regulated core of traditional finance.
Read more: Bloomberg, Business Insider
Image credit: Dan Nguyen @ New York City
