Crypto bank charter (trust charter)

In the US, crypto firms have pursued several types of charter. A national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) allows custody and fiduciary services nationwide under federal supervision; the first crypto-native firm received one in 2021. State options include Wyoming's special purpose depository institution charter, designed for digital asset businesses, and New York's limited purpose trust charter. Full-service bank charters, which allow lending and insured deposits, remain rare.

A charter offers credibility, a single federal regulator instead of dozens of state licences and potentially access to the Federal Reserve's payment systems through a master account. That access has been contested: a Wyoming crypto bank lost a court case after the Fed denied its master account request. Stablecoin issuers have shown growing interest in charters after the GENIUS Act created a federal framework for payment stablecoins in 2025.

Charters come with heavy capital, governance and examination requirements, and approval depends on regulators' policy at the time, which has shifted between administrations.