Coinbase Receives Conditional OCC Trust Charter as Banking Lobby Pushes Back

Coinbase received conditional OCC approval for a national trust company charter. CLO Paul Grewal fired back at banking lobby criticism within hours.

Coinbase Receives Conditional OCC Trust Charter as Banking Lobby Pushes Back Coinbase received conditional OCC approval for a national trust company charter. CLO Paul Grewal fired back at banking lobby criticism within hours. Aaron Rafferty April 03, 2026 Key Takeaways: The OCC granted Coinbase conditional approval for a national trust company charter, positioning the exchange for deeper institutional custody services on federally regulated rails. The Bank Policy Institute criticized the approval as inconsistent with limited trust-company powers, prompting Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal to call the opposition "entitled incumbent" behavior. Coinbase is the latest in a wave of crypto companies pursuing OCC charters, with 11 companies filing for federal crypto bank charters in 83 days earlier this year. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Coinbase conditional approval for a national trust company charter, positioning the exchange to offer institutional crypto custody services under federal bank regulation. The charter does not provide full deposit-taking bank powers but gives Coinbase a federally supervised framework for holding digital assets on behalf of institutional clients. The response was immediate. The Bank Policy Institute, which represents the largest U.S. banks, criticized the approval as inconsistent with the limited scope of trust-company authority. Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal responded on X : "Only an entitled incumbent used to getting their way for decades would deem concerns 'significant' merely because they raised them." The approval remains conditional. Coinbase must finalize board composition, bylaws, and pass an OCC examination before the charter becomes fully operational. But the direction is clear. The same institution that regulates