Washington Just Handed Coinbase a Federal Banking License

Coinbase just received conditional approval from the OCC for a national trust bank charter, the first major crypto exchange to reach this milestone at the federal level. This is different from its existing New York state charter. A federal charter means Coinbase can operate as a federally regulated custodian nationwide, bypassing the patchwork of 50 state licensing requirements. It also opens the door to new products beyond custody, payments, stablecoins, and tokenized securities. Coinbase is already custodian for over 80% of the world's digital asset ETFs, but its VP of Institutional Product says there are major asset managers and hedge funds that have been waiting specifically for this federal designation before trusting Coinbase with their assets. Conditional approval still requires passing a pre-opening OCC exam, adopting bylaws, and establishing payment rails before full charter is granted. Morgan Stanley, Citadel's EDX Markets, and World Liberty Financial are all in the same queue. Source: [https://beincrypto.com/coinbase-occ-conditional-approval-federal-trust/](https://beincrypto.com/coinbase-occ-conditional-approval-federal-trust/)