The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN.US), announced that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted full approval of its application, allowing it to operate as a nationally chartered trust bank. This marks the latest instance of a digital asset company pushing into traditional finance, and it means Coinbase's digital asset custody business will be further brought under the U.S. federal regulatory framework. According to the application documents Coinbase submitted, the charter approved by the OCC will help the company expand its asset custody operations and extend into areas such as payments. People familiar with the matter said the charter could also support Coinbase in further expanding its stablecoin business, enabling it to issue its own stablecoin and to help other crypto companies issue and manage such tokens. It is worth noting that Coinbase did not receive a full commercial bank charter, but rather a national trust bank charter. This charter allows the company to provide digital asset custody, fiduciary management and other services within its approved regulatory scope, but it does not mean it can directly conduct traditional commercial banking business. At the same time, stablecoin issuance still requires meeting additional conditions set out in relevant U.S. laws and regulatory frameworks.
OCC public application records show that Coinbase filed its trust bank charter application in October 2025, received conditional approval on April 2, 2026, and finally completed the effective procedures on November 6. Before this, Coinbase mainly conducted related business through charters and licenses issued by individual states. Obtaining a federal charter is expected to allow it to apply more uniform regulatory standards when conducting digital asset custody business across the United States, reducing differences among state-level regulatory rules. During U.S. President Trump's second term, a group of digital asset companies applied for national trust bank charters, and many of them received preliminary approval from the OCC. However, only a small number of companies have completed the final approval process, including Coinbase, Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) and Ripple. Among them, Circle received final OCC approval in July 2026 to establish Circle National Trust, mainly to provide fiduciary digital asset custody services to its affiliates; Ripple received final approval on October 26 to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, with approved businesses including managing segregated reserve assets supporting the U.S. dollar stablecoin RLUSD, serving as trustee for reserve asset collateral, and providing digital asset custody services. Previously, in December 2025, the OCC also granted conditional approval for national trust bank charter applications from companies such as BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.
Although a trust bank charter carries less business authority than a full bank charter, it can bring institutions supervised by the OCC into the U.S. federal financial regulatory system. Trust banks cannot take general deposits or make loans like ordinary commercial banks, but they can provide fiduciary management, client asset custody and other specific financial services. For crypto companies hoping to enter traditional financial markets, obtaining a federal charter helps strengthen institutional investors' trust in their compliance and asset safety management capabilities, while also creating conditions for cooperation with traditional banks, asset management institutions and payment service providers. This trend is also closely tied to the gradual improvement of the U.S. stablecoin regulatory framework. In July 2025, the U.S. GENIUS Act officially became law, establishing a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins and setting requirements for issuers, reserve asset backing, redemption mechanisms and risk management. In October 2026, the OCC further published the final implementing rules for the act, with the relevant rules scheduled to take effect on January 18, 2027. As the regulatory system gradually becomes clearer, stablecoin issuance and custody businesses are expected to further integrate into the traditional financial system, but related companies still need to meet applicable regulatory approvals and compliance requirements.
Coinbase Vice Chairman Ryan VanGrack said in an interview: "The approval of our application shows that the crypto industry will exist for the long term, and we are building financial institutions to match it. It also shows that we are more closely connected to the federal regulatory system, which has always been the direction we have long advocated. This is exactly how crypto integrates into our financial system." Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong previously said the company is already the world's largest crypto custodian. In fact, even before obtaining the OCC charter, Coinbase had been expanding its presence in payments and stablecoins, seeking to reduce its dependence on crypto trading business and build more diversified revenue sources.
On the payments side, Coinbase recently deepened cooperation with Citigroup (C.US), further connecting payment channels between traditional fiat currency and stablecoins. Under the cooperation arrangement announced by both sides on September 28, Coinbase will adopt Citigroup's virtual account wallet service to provide corporate clients with virtual accounts featuring bank account functions, allowing fiat currency received by clients to be automatically converted into stablecoins. At the same time, Citigroup's Spring by Citi payment platform will also connect to Coinbase's payment infrastructure, enabling Citigroup's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout without directly holding or managing stablecoins. The relevant transactions will be automatically converted from stablecoins into fiat currency by Coinbase's infrastructure, after which Citigroup will serve as the settlement bank to complete the fund settlement. Both sides hope this will reduce the operational complexity and compliance costs for companies moving funds between the traditional banking system and blockchain networks.
On the stablecoin side, Coinbase is also expanding its cooperation network. On October 28, the company reached a partnership with Ripple to bring Ripple's U.S. dollar stablecoin RLUSD onto Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange and its retail app. Users can deposit, withdraw and manage RLUSD through the XRP Ledger, Base and Ethereum networks, and can convert U.S. dollars or other eligible U.S. dollar stablecoins into RLUSD at a 1:1 ratio. Ripple said that as of the announcement of the partnership, RLUSD's market capitalization had exceeded $2.4 billion. This cooperation not only broadens the circulation channels for RLUSD, but also further enriches the stablecoin products Coinbase offers to retail and institutional clients. In addition, Coinbase's cooperative relationship with Circle around USDC remains an important part of its stablecoin business. As one of the world's largest regulated U.S. dollar stablecoins, USDC brings Coinbase business opportunities across trading, custody and reserve income sharing. Under the cooperation agreement previously reached by both sides, Circle shares related reserve income with Coinbase based on the distribution of USDC on the Coinbase platform and across the broader ecosystem. This arrangement allows Coinbase not only to earn income from USDC held on its own platform, but also to benefit from USDC circulating through other channels.
The latest financial report also shows that the stablecoin business is becoming an important part of Coinbase's revenue structure. The company's third-quarter 2026 financial report showed that in the three months ended September 30, Coinbase's net revenue was about $1.16 billion, of which subscription and services revenue reached $570.2 million, accounting for 49% of net revenue. During the same period, the average amount of USDC held on the Coinbase platform reached $22 billion, up 49% year over year and a record high, accounting for about 30% of USDC's average total market capitalization during the same period. Coinbase said that over the past year, the company captured about 50% of the related economic benefits of the USDC ecosystem, with on-chain cooperation and deeper product integration driving increased USDC adoption. This means the stablecoin business can not only bring Coinbase relatively diversified revenue, but also help it extend its business reach from traditional crypto trading into areas such as payments, fund settlement and corporate financial services.
Overall, final approval of Coinbase's national trust bank charter is an important step in the further integration of digital asset companies with the traditional financial system. As the U.S. stablecoin regulatory framework gradually takes effect and cooperation among traditional banks, payment institutions and crypto companies continues to deepen, Coinbase is expected to further expand its institutional client and corporate payments markets through its trading platform, digital asset custody capabilities and stablecoin infrastructure. However, the charter itself cannot eliminate the regulatory requirements facing stablecoin issuance, asset custody and cross-border payment businesses. Whether related businesses can continue to expand still depends on subsequent regulatory approvals, market demand and the company's own compliance and risk management capabilities.
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