OCC grants Crypto.com conditional approval for bank trust charter

Crypto.com said Monday that it has secured conditional approval for a national bank trust charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

In a Monday statement, the cryptocurrency exchange said that once fully approved as a federally regulated institution, it would be established to operate as a custodian across the US, subject to OCC oversight. The company submitted its application in October, saying at the time that it planned to provide custody services for digital asset treasuries, exchange-traded funds, and others.

“This conditional approval is the latest testament to both our commitment to compliance and to providing customers trusted and secure services they expect from Crypto.com,” said Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek.

Source: Crypto.com

The approval came about two months after the OCC conditionally approved five national bank charter applications for Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos, marking a significant policy step for the US regulator. Coinbase, which also applied in October, said that it had “no intention of becoming a bank” if approved.

This month, the American Bankers Association pressed the OCC via a comment letter to delay new national trust bank charters for companies associated with digital assets until the framework for the payment stablecoin bill signed into law in July, the GENIUS Act, was fully implemented.

The banking group warned that each application review needed “robust, broadly applicable safety and soundness standards,” and the OCC should “not measure its application decisioning progress against traditional timelines.”

Because most state money transmission regulations exclude chartered trust companies, nationally chartered companies would likely be exempt from most state licensing requirements, BairdHolm attorney Eli Rosenberg said last month.

Crypto company tied to US Presidents family under scrutiny for bank charter application

World Liberty Financial, the crypto company behind the $USD1 stablecoin and backed by US President Donald Trump and his sons, also applied for a national bank trust charter through the OCC in January. The company said that the charter, if approved, would allow it to issue and custody $USD1 itself rather than through third-party providers.

The application, which could be influenced by OCC head Jonathan Gould, has come under scrutiny from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who said she had “no confidence” the Trump pick would fairly assess World Libertys application. Gould claimed that reviewing the company would be a “apolitical and nonpartisan process.”