Coinbase receives full OCC trust-bank charter limited to institutional custody

Coinbase has received a full national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to Crypto.news and CryptoNews. The approval brings the exchange’s institutional cryptocurrency custody business under federal banking oversight and marks a major expansion of its regulated US operations. The approval is not a blanket banking license for Coinbase. Crypto.news reports that Coinbase remains restricted from offering retail banking, meaning the charter centers on its institutional custody activity rather than giving the company permission to provide banking services directly to individual customers. The two outlets corroborate the central regulatory action but emphasize different aspects of it. Crypto.news focuses on the boundary between institutional custody and retail banking, while CryptoNews places the approval in the context of Ripple’s earlier move and the wider expansion of crypto companies into federally supervised banking infrastructure. That broader context makes the decision relevant beyond Coinbase itself. According to CryptoNews, Coinbase is following Ripple as crypto companies seek greater participation in the US banking system, with the OCC approval providing a formal supervisory framework for Coinbase’s institutional custody operations. The wider crypto market was broadly lower at the time of the report. Total market capitalization stood at $2.55 trillion, Bitcoin was down 2.09% over 24 hours, and the Fear & Greed index registered 29, indicating a fearful market mood. No specific coin from the tracked list was named, so the supplied data provides market-wide context rather than a direct price reaction to Coinbase’s approval. The regulatory milestone to watch is the practical division between the newly approved institutional custody business and the services Coinbase still cannot offer under the charter.