Coinbase Joins Circle, Ripple, Paxos In US Crypto Trust Bank Cohort After OCC Conditional Approval

• Coinbase, on Thursday, received conditional approval from the OCC to establish Coinbase National Trust Company.
• The company said the trust charter is intended to bring federal regulatory oversight to Coinbase’s custody and market infrastructure services.
• Conditional approval requires Coinbase to complete governance, staffing, and operational readiness steps before launch.

Coinbase (COIN) announced on Thursday that it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Coinbase National Trust Company. With the approval, Coinbase joins Circle (CRCL), Ripple (XRP), and Paxos, which received conditional trust bank charters back in December.

The company said that the approval does not signal a shift into traditional banking. “Coinbase is not becoming a commercial bank. We will not be taking retail deposits. We will not be engaging in fractional reserve banking,” it said in a blog post. It explained that the trust charter is intended to formalize its custody and infrastructure operations under a unified federal framework.

COIN’s stock edged 0.72% lower in afternoon trade amid weakness in the broader markets, both cryptocurrency and equities. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the cryptocurrency exchange remained in ‘bearish’ territory over the past day.

What Conditional OCC Approval Means For Coinbase

Conditional approval from the OCC means that a company’s application is acceptable in principle but still subject to additional requirements before it can begin operations.

For Coinbase, this means completing several steps, including establishing a board, finalizing governance structures, and passing a pre-opening regulatory examination. Only after these conditions are met can Coinbase National Trust Company begin operating as a national trust bank.

The debate over whether companies like Coinbase will be allowed to offer rewards on stablecoin deposits continues to unfold in Washington. Crypto firms are reportedly scheduled to review a new draft of the stablecoin yield proposal today in a close-door session on Thursday, followed by the banking industry on Friday. 

Read also: Bitcoin Falls Below $67,000 After Oil Spikes, Trump's Iran Warning Rattles Risk Assets

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