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Coinbase now holds a full national trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The largest US crypto exchange can now run its custody business under a federal banking regulator instead of relying only on a state license.
The company is not alone. Ripple has reached the same status, and a growing list of other firms are collecting provisional trust charters as the OCC puts the GENIUS Act into practice.
What Coinbase actually got
The new entity is called the Coinbase National Trust Company. It is a de novo national trust bank, meaning it was built from scratch rather than acquired. Its main job is fiduciary digital asset custody.
The process took time. Coinbase filed its application on October 3, 2025, and received conditional approval on April 2, 2026.
The charter has clear limits. It does not cover retail deposits, lending or fractional reserve banking. Coinbase also keeps its existing New York state trust charter and its BitLicense. The company is adding a federal layer on top of its state licenses, not replacing them overnight.
That shift will be gradual. The charter application includes a plan to move the custody business over a three-year period.
Why the custody numbers matter
The size of the business explains the slow pace. Coinbase held $245.7 billion in institutional custody assets as of mid-2025. Total assets on its platform reached $376 billion at year-end 2025, which the research behind this report puts at over 12% of global crypto market capitalization.
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So this is not a side business looking for a nicer license. It is one of the largest pools of custodied crypto anywhere, and it is moving from a New York framework to federal oversight.
The GENIUS Act backdrop
The charter wave ties directly to the GENIUS Act. It was signed into law in July 2025 and set up a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers, known in the statute as PPSIs.
National trust banks are one of the structures the OCC is using to bring issuers and custodians inside that system.
Ripple offers the clearest example. It received conditional OCC approval for its national trust bank on December 12, 2025, and later secured final approval on October 26, 2026. Ripple’s own stablecoin, RLUSD, has an estimated market capitalization of between $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion.
That puts Ripple in a position to run a stablecoin business under a federal charter. Coinbase’s charter is centered on custody, but the two now hold the same kind of license.
What this means for the market
There is also a competitive angle. Coinbase already dominates US institutional custody, and a federal charter could strengthen that position. Rivals without charters may find it harder to win clients who now expect a federal regulator to be involved.
For stablecoin issuers, the message is clear. The GENIUS Act framework is becoming active through these approvals. Firms seeking to issue or custody payment stablecoins will likely face pressure to get a federal license to stay credible with partners and clients.
Risks remain worth tracking. The three-year transition means Coinbase will operate across both state and federal frameworks for a while, which adds complexity. The scope limits matter too. Without deposit-taking or lending powers, these trust banks remain specialists.
