The approval by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) marks the latest example of digital asset companies moving into the traditional finance space, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Nov. 9).
“Our approval shows that crypto is here to stay and we are building the institutions to match,” Ryan VanGrack, vice chairman at Coinbase, said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“And it shows we are more connected to our federal regulatory infrastructure, something we’ve long championed. That’s precisely how crypto gets integrated into our financial system.
The license, which the OCC approved last week, will help Coinbase expand its custody business and move further into areas like payments, the report added, citing the company’s charter application.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the approval could also expand Coinbase’s stablecoin business by permitting the company to issue its own stablecoins and help other cryptocurrency firms with issuing and managing the tokens.
Coinbase announced in April that it had been granted conditional approval from the OCC, a move that soon received pushback from The Independent Community Bankers of America.
That group argued Coinbase’s application did not meet the requirements of the National Bank Act or the OCC’s own regulations and standards.
As Bloomberg notes, many digital asset companies have applied for national charters and won preliminary OCC approval during President Donald Trump’s second term. Just a handful have obtained a full charter, including Ripple, Circle and now Coinbase.
“For more than a decade, regulators signaled that those seeking a federal bank charter and federal deposit insurance need not apply,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said in an August statement.
“Entities that engage in legally permissible activities, including those involving digital assets and other novel technologies, should have a path to becoming a national bank. America and the OCC are once again open for business.”
However, the arrival of a new Congress next year could mean much more scrutiny for the crypto sector, PYMNTS wrote after last week’s election.
“For cryptocurrency firms, the challenge is shifting from securing favorable legislation to demonstrating that their business models can survive more demanding oversight,” the report said. “The midterms did not repeal crypto’s legislative victories. They changed who gets to interrogate them.”
