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Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, said it has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) seeking approval for a National Trust Company charter. Payward said the charter would enable it to establish a federally regulated custody business under OCC oversight, with the stated goal of broadening access for institutional clients that require a federally regulated qualified custodian.
Payward said that, if approved, the application would create Payward National Trust Company (PNTC). The company said it expects PNTC to serve both institutional clients and individual customers seeking regulated, trust-based custody and related services for digital assets.
Payward added that it plans to build on its existing infrastructure, including its risk management and compliance programs, as well as its regulated affiliates, to support custody services in a secure and compliant manner.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said the company’s long-standing view is that digital assets require robust and transparent regulation to grow responsibly. He described the national trust company model as the type of certainty institutions look for and said the charter would help create infrastructure for the next generation of custody.
Sethi also said the effort is not about being first, but about getting the framework right so markets can scale with clarity, interoperability, and long-term expectations from clients as the technology matures.
He further connected the charter effort to Payward’s broader banking strategy, describing Kraken Financial and the OCC work as complementary parts of an initiative intended to advance a more digitally native financial system that is efficient and accessible. Sethi pointed to Payward’s Wyoming SPDI and its Federal Reserve master account as part of the foundation for the approach, and said adding a national trust company would expand what Payward can offer clients.
Payward’s filing comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the OCC’s handling of crypto-related charters. The article notes that the OCC has conditionally approved national trust bank charters for six crypto firms: Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. It also states that the most recent approval in the group came earlier last month, when Coinbase received conditional approval from the OCC to establish Coinbase National Trust Company.
The article says these approvals have faced criticism from banking lobbyist groups. It reports that, since last year, those groups have argued the OCC is stretching the definition and historical purpose of the national trust bank charter.
Rebeca Romero Rainey, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said the conditional approvals could endanger consumers and lead to institutions that the OCC may not be able to manage effectively. She also argued that the new framework could allow stablecoin operators to access the federal banking system without the same level of capital and regulatory requirements that traditional banks must meet.
The article also references a chart showing the total crypto market cap at $2.64 trillion (Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com).
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