Coinbase Wins Federal Trust Charter Approval From OCC

Coinbase has won a full federal trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to Crypto Briefing. The outlet reports the exchange filed its application on October 3, 2025, cleared conditional approval on April 2, 2026, and has now secured the final charter. Crypto Briefing cites the charter's terms as barring retail deposits, lending, and fractional reserve banking.

Coinbase's platform held $376 billion in total assets at the close of 2025, a figure Crypto Briefing's underlying research puts at more than 12% of worldwide crypto market value. The outlet says Coinbase intends to move its custody operations under federal supervision over a three-year window, while keeping its New York state trust charter and BitLicense active alongside the new federal status.

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Crypto Briefing also reports that Ripple landed the same type of approval, getting its national trust bank finalized on October 26, 2026, months after an earlier trust charter grant in December 2025. The outlet puts Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD at a market value of roughly $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion. Both firms' charters trace back to a framework the outlet says followed the GENIUS Act becoming law in July 2025, which set rules for payment stablecoin issuers.

Crypto Briefing notes several points remain unclear: the precise date Coinbase's charter took full effect, whether companies other than Coinbase and Ripple hold full rather than provisional versions of this license, and whether Coinbase intends to launch its own stablecoin under the new approval.