Coinbase said on November 9, 2026, that its national trust company had received final regulatory approval to begin operations, following conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in April 2026.

The charter places Coinbase's custody business, which safeguards digital assets on behalf of clients, under a federal regulatory framework. The OCC, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, supervises national banks and grants federal trust charters, allowing qualifying firms to operate nationwide under federal rather than state-by-state oversight. Unlike a full commercial bank charter, a federal trust charter is limited to fiduciary functions such as custody rather than deposit-taking and lending.

However, the approvals are drawing congressional scrutiny. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) questioned at least nine crypto trust-charter approvals in a May 18, 2026 letter to the OCC, requesting application records, legal justifications, and communications between regulators, the White House, and Trump family members. Record-request letters are a standard instrument of congressional oversight, and lawmakers can turn to compulsory measures such as subpoenas when voluntary responses fall short.

Separately, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) has renewed demands for records from Binance, Tether, and two Trump-linked crypto ventures, giving the companies until January 4, 2027, to voluntarily provide the requested information. Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, while Tether is the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, a token designed to track the value of the U.S. dollar. That deadline is the nearest fixed checkpoint in the dispute.

The developments highlight growing tension between U.S. regulators' efforts to integrate crypto companies into the traditional financial system and lawmakers' demands for greater oversight of regulatory decisions, compliance standards, and potential conflicts of interest. With the records deadline falling in early January 2027, the friction between federal integration of crypto firms and congressional review of how their approvals were granted is set to extend into the new year.

Source: BitcoinKE