EDX Becomes Latest Crypto Firm Seeking Banking Status

EDX Market is the latest cryptocurrency exchange aiming to become a national trust bank.

In an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) made public Wednesday (April 1), the company seeks to become a de novo national bank with its operations limited to those of a trust company.

The goal is to provide custody and asset management services while facilitating “riskless principal trading services” for EDX customers, the application said. At the same, trading would continue in EDX Markets.

The filing was flagged in a report by Bloomberg News, which also included an interview with EDX CEO Tony Acuña-Rohter.

“It is without a doubt that the next wave of crypto will be the large banks,” he said. “And in order for us to be able to service these firms, we think it gives us a competitive advantage to be an OCC-chartered trust.”

The company says it aims to close a gap in the U.S. digital asset market, noting that in traditional markets like equities and derivatives, there is a “separation of duties” among roles like brokers working with retail clients or market makers providing liquidity.

“Digital asset markets are still evolving, but to date have lacked this separation of functions,” the application says.

“Vertically integrated entities housing brokerage, exchange, and custodian functions create

potential conflicts of interest and a single point of failure that can cause systemic risk. Moving the custody, asset management, and trade settlement services into an OCC-chartered national trust bank would provide its customers with the most secure regulatory structure possible.”

With this application, EDX joins a host of other companies seeking the OCC’s blessing to become a national trust bank.

As PYMNTS wrote last month, the OCC has gotten so many applications for digital asset-focused national trust charters that a lobbying group for the traditional financial sector, the Bank Policy Institute, was considering suing the regulator over its decisions to approve so many crypto, payment and FinTech companies.

At the time of that writing — 11 days into March — OCC had approved four new applications and received north of seven.

“And while conditional approvals and actual operational status are two very different things, the direction of travel across banking implies that regulated infrastructure providers, not consumer interfaces, could be the most valuable layer of finance,” that report said.