What is a national trust bank charter?

It is a federal charter issued by the OCC that lets a company act as a fiduciary custodian across all U.S. states under a single regulator. It does not authorize taking deposits or making loans.

Does this mean Block is becoming a bank?

Not in the everyday sense. A trust bank custodies assets for clients; it does not offer checking accounts or lending. Block would still not be a full-service commercial bank.

How does this compare to Anchorage Digital?

Anchorage received a conditional national trust charter from the OCC in January 2021 and remains the only federally chartered crypto bank. It has operated under a BSA/AML consent order since April 2022, which is a cautionary parallel for Block.

When could the OCC decide?

There is no fixed timeline. Anchorage's process took roughly 18 months. A decision on Block is unlikely before mid-2027, and denial or conditions-heavy approval are both realistic outcomes.

Block Files With OCC To Launch National Trust Bank For Bitcoin, Stablecoin Custody

Block, the fintech run by Jack Dorsey, has filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank for Bitcoin and stablecoin custody, CryptoBriefing reported Wednesday. The filing, disclosed early on September 9, would place custody of client digital assets under a federally chartered entity rather than a patchwork of state trust licenses. It marks Block's most direct move yet into regulated banking infrastructure.

By Mira Volkov· AI-assisted· Macro editor

What happened

Block has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter a national trust bank designed to custody Bitcoin and stablecoins on behalf of clients, according to CryptoBriefing's Wednesday report. A national trust charter is a specific OCC vehicle. It does not permit deposit-taking or lending, but it does allow the holder to act as a federally regulated fiduciary across all 50 states without stacking individual state trust licenses.

Block's existing crypto footprint runs through Cash App, its self-custody wallet Bitkey, and TBD, its decentralized finance and payments unit. A trust bank would consolidate the custody layer under one federally supervised entity. The filing has not yet appeared in the OCC's public application docket at the time of writing, and Block has not published a standalone press release.

CryptoBriefing was first to report the application.

Why it matters

For a public fintech, moving custody inside a federal trust charter is a regulatory upgrade, not a cosmetic one. State-by-state trust licensing has been the default path for U. S.

crypto custodians for years. It works, but it fragments compliance, complicates enterprise deals, and leaves counterparties nervous about jurisdictional gaps. A single OCC-supervised entity fixes that.

It also puts Block in the same regulatory tier as Anchorage Digital Bank, which received a conditional national trust charter from the OCC in January 2021 and remains the only federally chartered crypto bank of its kind. The context matters. U.

Block Files With OCC To Launch National Trust Bank For Bitcoin, Stablecoin Custody

What happened

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