Key takeaways
- Coinbase's national trust charter becomes effective under OCC supervision
- Existing institutional custody business faces a three-year transition
- Federal authorization excludes conventional deposits and commercial lending
Coinbase has secured an effective US national trust charter, enabling its new federally supervised institution to offer cryptocurrency custody as the exchange prepares to shift operations away from its existing New York-regulated trust company.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's official application record confirms that the charter of Coinbase National Trust Company took effect on November 6, 2026, after receiving preliminary approval on April 2. Coinbase announced the final authorization on November 9.
The move extends the company's institutional custody ambitions beyond its earlier conditional approval, though the charter does not convert Coinbase into a conventional commercial bank.
Coinbase Gains Federal Authority for Institutional Crypto Custody
Coinbase National Trust Company is authorized to safeguard digital assets in a fiduciary capacity, mainly for institutional clients.
The approved business plan allows custody clients to hold and transfer digital assets and related fiat currency within their custody accounts, along with certain transaction services directly tied to those assets.
Unlike a traditional bank, the trust company cannot accept ordinary retail deposits or engage in standard lending.
Customers may reach staking, prime trading and financing through Coinbase affiliates, but the national trust company will not directly provide those underlying services.
The distinction matters as financial institutions expand their reliance on regulated crypto custodians. Morgan Stanley, for example, previously chose Coinbase and BNY Mellon for digital asset custody supporting its Bitcoin investment products.
Coinbase Plans Three-Year Custody Transition
The charter also sets out a framework for moving Coinbase's existing custody business from Coinbase Custody Trust Company, a New York limited-purpose trust company regulated by the NYDFS.
The OCC-approved plan provides for migrating that business into Coinbase National Trust Company over its three-year initial operating period.
However, the authorization does not confirm that existing institutional customer accounts have already been transferred. Coinbase has not disclosed a completed migration timetable for individual clients.
The transition could affect how institutional clients evaluate custody arrangements, particularly investment funds that require regulated asset segregation and fiduciary safeguards.
It also builds on Coinbase's established role in the infrastructure supporting crypto ETFs, where custodians safeguard underlying tokens while fund administrators and authorized participants perform separate functions.
Crypto Trust Banks Face Growing Competition and Scrutiny
Coinbase joins a broader group of digital asset businesses seeking federal trust supervision.
Ripple received final OCC authorization for its national trust bank in October, while other crypto infrastructure providers have pursued similar federal oversight.
The expansion remains controversial, however. Traditional banking organizations have challenged the regulator's authority to grant certain crypto-focused national trust charters.
The dispute intensified as Galaxy Digital sought its own charter, highlighting competition over which institutions should be permitted to provide federally supervised digital asset services.
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