Coinbase’s national trust bank charter took effect on Friday, according to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Cointelegraph reported on November 9, 2026. The charter allows Coinbase National Trust Company to hold digital assets for clients as a fiduciary, according to the OCC’s preliminary approval letter.
Custody and related services
Coinbase’s charter application outlined plans to offer institutional clients segregated custody accounts. Access to staking, financing and trading would come through other Coinbase entities, rather than the trust company itself.
That distinction separates the proposed custody role from the entities providing related financial services. The report does not detail the contractual obligations governing those services or the protections attached to the proposed accounts.
The application also described plans to explore digital asset payment products and custody services that would let clients interact with select smart contracts. These were plans outlined in the application, not services the report confirmed had launched.
The approval timeline
According to the OCC’s filing record, Coinbase applied for the charter in October 2025 and received preliminary approval in April 2026.
Other crypto companies that received OCC national trust bank charters include Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge received conditional approval, while Kraken and EDX Markets were still pursuing charters at the time of the report.
Original source: Cointelegraph, published November 9, 2026, at 19:38:52 UTC+8.