On Friday, Coinbase (COIN) announced its application for a national trust charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a significant step towards federal regulatory oversight upon approval.
The charter aims to enhance Coinbase’s current custody services by incorporating payments and settlement offerings without needing to establish a full-service bank charter.
“Coinbase does not intend to become a bank,” stated Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s vice president of institutional product, in a blog post. “We strongly believe that defined regulations along with regulator and customer trust allow us to innovate confidently while maintaining appropriate oversight and security.”
Currently, the U.S. crypto exchange operates its regulated custody services via Coinbase Custody Trust Company (CCTC), licensed under New York state’s BitLicense framework, which was one of the earliest state-level regulations for crypto in the U.S. back in 2015.
A federal trust charter would provide Coinbase the flexibility to launch new financial services, such as cryptocurrency payments, without requiring state approvals.
This initiative follows a trend of several crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, and Paxos, seeking federal supervision this year.
Read More: U.S. SEC Takes Preliminary Step to Expand Universe of Crypto Custody to State Trusts
