Coinbase has won a federal trust charter from the OCC, the latest major crypto firm to do so. Markus Veith, Partner at @GrantThorntonUS, joins @jd_durkin to discuss why a charter is "a safe bet" until the Clarity Act passes.

Coinbase now owns a national trust bank. The charter is for its custody business. The new bank will hold crypto for institutions, with the OCC as its regulator. For context, Coinbase already holds roughly 80% of US spot bitcoin ETF assets. It will move that business into the new bank over three years. The OCC signed off on 6 November, seven months after conditional approval in April. Trading, staking and lending stay in other Coinbase companies, and the bank can point its clients to them. Issuing a stablecoin wasn't part of the application, according to the OCC's April decision. --- Coinbase is gearing up to be a major player on Wall St as everything tokenizes. Splitting custody from trading is how traditional markets work too. Banks and asset managers already approve that setup for stocks and bonds. The charter also helps the part of Coinbase that relies less on trading, which is good timing... Coinbase's trading revenue fell 44% in a year. Its other revenue, which includes custody and stablecoin income, now almost matches it. --- In April, Coinbase said the charter would also support payments. That leans on a March 2026 OCC rule, which swapped "fiduciary activities" for "operations of a trust company and activities related thereto" in its charter rules. The rule confirms trust banks can offer services alongside their trustee work. The OCC names custody, and it decides on anything else, like payments, case by case. The ICBA, a community bank trade group, sued in October to overturn the rule. Apart from one test case, it isn't asking the court to cancel charters already granted. Custody is the core job of any trust company, so the lawsuit poses less risk there. My sense is they have the cover they feel they need to do all of their existing stablecoin activities and more under GENIUS. And their charter is now granted. Life could be litigious. Exams could be hard. But they're through the door. --- To me, this is the most institutional bit of Coinbase, and they're doing the safest, simplest thing. It gives them the credibility to go after growing demand from institutions for tokenized everything. If the OCC's rule holds up in court, expect Coinbase and the other crypto trust banks to build payments products. If it falls, Coinbase keeps payments in its state-licensed businesses.

Coinbase Wins Federal Approval to Operate as a National Trust Bank @Coinbase has been granted a federal charter by US banking regulators to become a national trust bank. This means the exchange will have direct access to central bank clearing systems, reducing its dependence on other banks. It will also be able to process fiat settlements, institutional custody, and fiduciary trusts. Getting the trust bank charter does not mean that Coinbase has obtained a commercial banking license because its scope will be limited to custody and trust functions only.