Bitcoin-focused payments company Block Inc. has applied for a U.S. banking charter, becoming the latest digital asset firm to seek a federal banking license.

The company, which operates Square, Cash App, and Bitkey, said Wednesday that it had submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. Block disclosed the filing in a statement published on its investor relations website.

Block joins a long list of digital asset firms that have received conditional approval from the regulator or are awaiting a decision, with its own filing now part of that same queue. If fully approved, a federal charter would grant certain banking powers, including the ability to custody assets and move client funds. The OCC, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, charters and supervises national banks and similar institutions.

JUST IN: Block applies to establish Builders Bank & Trust with the OCC, which would provide federally regulated custody and "fiduciary services" for Bitcoin and stablecoins. pic.twitter.com/Dkq7WIg6Wa
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"Building on Block's experience in the digital asset space, our history with Square Financial Services, and the deep banking expertise of the team we've assembled, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block's broader vision of economic empowerment," said Lee Woolley, who would serve as President and CEO of Builders Bank, in a statement.

If approved, Builders Bank would operate as a federally regulated national trust bank under OCC supervision, providing custody and related fiduciary services, including for bitcoin and stablecoins. That would place its bitcoin and stablecoin custody plans under the same federal framework that governs traditional national banks — a status an expanding set of crypto firms has been pursuing through the same regulator.

A number of leading crypto companies have already received conditional approval for comparable charters, including Coinbase, Circle, Crypto.com, and Paxos. World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance protocol backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, also received approval this year. Block's application now awaits a decision from the regulator, the same step its peers have passed on the way to conditional approval.

Block co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, a well-known bitcoin maximalist, has long pushed for the largest and oldest cryptocurrency to function as everyday money. Last year, Square, Block's point-of-sale business, rolled out bitcoin acceptance for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, with no setup required and transactions instantly converted to dollars at checkout. The charter bid marks the company's latest move in that bitcoin-focused direction, though it remains subject to OCC review.

This article, written by Mathew Di Salvo, first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.