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Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust company charter, according to a company statement. The application seeks to establish the Payward National Trust Company, or PNTC, which would offer bank-level custody and trust services for digital assets to both institutional clients and individual customers.
Payward's move comes roughly a month after Coinbase received conditional approval for its own national trust charter, with Ripple also clearing the same hurdle. The pattern of approvals — three crypto-native firms now operating under federal trust oversight within months — is reshaping the regulatory perimeter around US digital-asset custody, pulling activity that previously sat in state-by-state money transmitter regimes into a single federal license.
"Our long-held belief has always been that the right path forward for digital assets runs through robust, transparent regulation," Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the statement, framing the charter as the certainty institutions require to build the next generation of custody infrastructure.
Why it matters
An OCC national trust charter lets a non-bank entity offer custodial and fiduciary services under federal supervision — a step up from the patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses that most US crypto venues currently operate under. The license doesn't grant deposit insurance or lending powers, but it does impose bank-grade capital, audit, and compliance requirements, which is precisely the regulatory veneer institutional allocators have been waiting for before deploying balance sheet at scale.
The clustering of approvals is doing more than legitimizing one company at a time. Each new charter gives the OCC additional case law to defend its reinterpretation of federal licensing rules — interpretation that a banking trade group, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America on its board, has already considered challenging in court. The more crypto firms that clear the bar, the harder that legal challenge becomes to frame as a one-off overreach.
Frequently asked questions
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What is Payward applying for with the OCC?
Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust company charter to establish the Payward National Trust Company (PNTC), which would offer bank-level custody and trust services for digital assets.
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Why is Payward's OCC application significant?
It is the third major US crypto venue to seek a federal trust license within two months, after Coinbase and Ripple, signaling that federally supervised crypto custody is becoming standard for institutional allocators.
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How does an OCC national trust charter differ from a state money transmitter license?
A national trust charter places a non-bank digital-asset custodian under federal OCC supervision with bank-grade capital, audit, and compliance requirements, replacing the patchwork of state-by-state money transmitter licenses most crypto venues currently operate under.
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Why are banks pushing back against OCC crypto trust charters?
A banking trade group whose board includes JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America has considered suing the OCC over its reinterpretation of federal licensing rules, arguing the regulator is ignoring repeated warnings by extending trust charters to crypto and fintech firms.
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When will Payward's charter application be approved?
The OCC has not publicly committed to a timeline. Coinbase and Ripple received conditional approvals roughly a month ago, so a similar window is plausible, though final approval depends on the OCC's review of Payward's compliance, capital, and risk-management programs.
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