Jack Dorsey's Block filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank Trust, N.A.—an uninsured, non-deposit-taking national trust bank for bitcoin and stablecoin custody.
If approved, Builders Bank will offer custodial and fiduciary services for digital assets under a single federal regulatory framework, consolidating Block's existing crypto operations.
The move matters: Of 40 new-bank charter applications the OCC received over the past 18 months, 23 involve digital asset activity—57.5 percent. Comptroller Jonathan Gould noted this represents an eight-fold increase in crypto banking applications over four years.
A national trust bank charter places cryptocurrency companies under federal oversight, giving them a competitive edge. Federal licensure resolves the state-by-state regulatory patchwork and signals legitimacy to institutional clients unwilling to custody assets with unregulated counterparties. It also positions companies for qualified-custodian status—critical for managing client funds.
Lee Woolley, proposed president and CEO of Builders Bank, said Block's digital asset experience and Square Financial Services position the bank to support "economic empowerment through crypto."
Until recently, Anchorage Digital held this charter alone. Now the race accelerates. The OCC has conditionally approved applications or conversion requests for BitGo, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Ripple. Circle secured final approval on July 10 to establish Circle National Trust bank. Coinbase received preliminary conditional approval on April 2, 2026.
Revolut's Sept. 2 approval differs—it won a full-service insured national bank charter, not a trust bank.
Of 40 applications, 21 have been approved and two denied. The distinction matters: national trust banks operate as fiduciaries holding client assets, different from commercial banks that bolt a crypto desk onto existing operations.
