The Zhitong Finance App learned that Coinbase (COIN.US), the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, said that the US Monetary Authority (OCC) has fully approved its application, allowing it to become a trust bank that has obtained a national franchise. This is the latest case of a company in the digital asset sector entering the traditional financial sector. It also means that Coinbase's digital asset custody business will be further integrated into the US federal regulatory system.
According to the application documents submitted by Coinbase, the license approved by the OCC will help Coinbase expand its asset custody business and further expand payment and other fields. According to people familiar with the matter, the license may also support Coinbase to further expand its stablecoin business, enable it to issue its own stablecoins, and help other cryptocurrency companies issue and manage such tokens.
It is worth noting that Coinbase did not obtain a complete commercial banking license this time, but a national trust bank license. The license allows the company to provide services such as digital asset escrow and fiduciary management within the scope of business approved by the regulations, but it does not mean that it can directly carry out traditional commercial banking business. At the same time, stablecoin issuance is also subject to additional conditions stipulated in the relevant US legal and regulatory framework.
According to OCC's public application records, Coinbase submitted an application for a trust bank license in October 2025, obtained conditional approval on April 2, 2026, and finally completed the entry into force procedure on November 6. Prior to that, Coinbase mainly carried out related business through licenses and permits issued by various states. Obtaining a federal license this time is expected to enable it to apply more uniform regulatory standards and reduce differences in regulatory rules in different states when carrying out digital asset escrow business across the US.
During US President Trump's second term, a number of digital asset companies have applied for national trust banking licenses, and many of them received initial approval from the OCC. However, there are still only a few companies that have completed the approval process, including Coinbase, Circle (CRCL.US), and Ripple.
Among them, Circle received final approval from the OCC in July 2026, and can establish Circle National Trust, which mainly provides fiduciary digital asset escrow services to its affiliated companies; Ripple received final approval on October 26 to establish the Ripple National Trust Bank. Its approved business includes managing isolated reserve assets supporting the US dollar stablecoin RLUSD, acting as a reserve asset collateral trustee, and providing digital asset custody services. Previously, the OCC also conditionally approved national trust bank license applications from companies such as BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos in December 2025.
Although a trust bank license does not have as much business authority as a full bank license, it can incorporate institutions regulated by the OCC into the US federal financial supervision system. Trust banks cannot absorb general deposits or issue loans like ordinary commercial banks, but they can provide fiduciary management, customer asset custody, and other specific financial services. For cryptocurrency companies that want to enter traditional financial markets, obtaining a federal license helps strengthen institutional investors' trust in their compliance and asset security management capabilities, and also creates conditions for them to cooperate with traditional banks, asset management institutions, and payment service providers.
This trend is also closely related to the gradual improvement of the US stablecoin regulatory framework. In July 2025, the US “GENIUS Act” officially became law, establishing a federal regulatory framework for stablecoin payments and putting forward requirements on issuers, reserve asset support, redemption mechanisms, and risk management. In October 2026, the OCC further announced the final implementation rules of the Act. The relevant rules are scheduled to take effect on January 18, 2027. As the regulatory system is gradually clarified, the stablecoin issuance and escrow business is expected to be further integrated into the traditional financial system, but related companies still need to meet applicable regulatory approval and compliance requirements.
Coinbase Vice Chairman Ryan VanRack said in an interview: “The approval of our application shows that the cryptocurrency industry will be around for a long time, and we are building financial institutions to match it. It also shows that we are more closely connected to the federal regulatory system, and this has been a direction we have long advocated. This is how cryptocurrencies are integrated into our financial system.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong previously stated that the company is currently the world's largest cryptocurrency custodian. In fact, even before receiving the OCC license, Coinbase had been expanding its layout in the payments and stablecoin sector, trying to reduce its dependence on cryptocurrency trading businesses and establish more diversified revenue streams.
In terms of payment business, Coinbase recently deepened cooperation with Citigroup (C.US) to further open up payment channels between traditional fiat currencies and stablecoins. According to the cooperation arrangement announced by the two parties on September 28, Coinbase will use Citi's virtual account wallet service to provide corporate customers with virtual accounts with bank account functions. The fiat currency received by the customer can be automatically converted into stablecoins.
At the same time, Citi's Spring by Citi payment platform will also be connected to Coinbase's payment infrastructure, enabling Citigroup's institutional customers to accept stablecoin payments during the checkout process without directly holding or managing stablecoins. The relevant transaction will be automatically converted from stablecoins to legal tender by Coinbase's infrastructure, and Citibank will use Citibank as the settlement bank to complete the fund settlement. The two sides hope to use this to reduce the operational complexity and compliance costs of enterprises transferring funds between traditional banking systems and blockchain networks.
In terms of stablecoin business, Coinbase is also expanding the scope of cooperation. The company reached a partnership with Ripple on October 28 to introduce Ripple's US dollar stablecoin RLUSD to Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange, and retail apps. Users can access and manage RLUSD through the XRP Ledger, Base, and Ethereum networks, and can convert US dollars or other eligible US dollar stablecoins to RLUSD at a 1:1 ratio. Ripple said that at the time of the announcement of the partnership, the market value of RLUSD had exceeded 2.4 billion US dollars. The partnership not only expanded RLUSD's circulation channels, but also further enriched Coinbase's stablecoin products for retail and institutional customers.
Furthermore, the partnership between Coinbase and Circle around USDC is still an important part of its stablecoin business. As one of the largest regulated US dollar stablecoins in the world, USDC has brought Coinbase various business opportunities such as trading, escrow, and reserve revenue sharing. According to the cooperation agreement previously reached between the two parties, Circle will share relevant reserve revenue with Coinbase based on the distribution of USDC on the Coinbase platform and the broader ecosystem. This arrangement allows Coinbase not only to receive revenue from USDC held on its own platform, but also to benefit from USDC's circulation through other channels.
The latest financial report also shows that the stablecoin business is becoming an important part of Coinbase's revenue structure. The company's financial report for the third quarter of 2026 shows that in the three months ending September 30, Coinbase's net revenue was approximately US$1.16 billion, of which subscription and service revenue reached US$570.2 million, accounting for 49% of net revenue. In the same period, the average size of USDC held on the Coinbase platform reached 22 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 49%, a record high, accounting for about 30% of the average total market value of USDC during the same period.
Coinbase said that in the past year, the company received about 50% of the financial benefits associated with the USDC ecosystem, and the increase in the degree of on-chain cooperation and product integration contributed to the growth of USDC adoption. This means that the stablecoin business can not only bring relatively diversified revenue to Coinbase, but also help it extend its business reach from traditional cryptocurrency transactions to fields such as payments, fund settlement, and corporate financial services.
Overall, Coinbase's final approval of a national trust bank license is an important step in further integrating digital asset companies with traditional financial systems. With the gradual implementation of the US stablecoin regulatory framework and deepening cooperation among traditional banks, payment institutions, and cryptocurrency companies, Coinbase is expected to further expand the institutional customer and corporate payment market with its trading platform, digital asset custodian capabilities, and stablecoin infrastructure. However, the license itself does not eliminate the regulatory requirements faced by stablecoin issuance, asset escrow, and cross-border payment businesses. Whether related businesses can continue to expand depends on subsequent regulatory approvals, market demand, and the company's own compliance and risk management capabilities.