Coinbase is applying for a national trust charter to expand its crypto payments business

Coinbase is pushing for a national trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the company said on Friday, according to a blog post by its vice president of institutional product, Greg Tusar.

Now this doesn’t mean the company is trying to become a bank. Greg made that very clear: “Coinbase has no intention of becoming a bank.” What it wants is a green light to go deeper into crypto payments and build more services around them, now that stablecoins are finally being taken seriously in Washington.

Payments have become a major focus for Coinbase over the last year. The rise of stablecoins, especially USDC, has made that obvious. In July, President Donald Trump signed new legislation to regulate stablecoins, and since then, things have picked up fast.

Coinbase has teamed up with Shopify to promote USDC, which it supports and earns revenue from alongside the issuer Circle. Greg said a national trust charter would give Coinbase one single overseer instead of a patchwork of state regulators, helping it launch new crypto features faster while keeping regulators involved.

The charter would also strengthen Coinbase’s ability to weave crypto into everyday payments; on websites, in wallets, and even in big retail checkouts. The exchange wants to simplify how crypto connects with the traditional finance system, but without turning into a bank.

Greg called the charter a way to “enable continued innovation” while giving the company room to grow with fewer regulatory blockades.

Other crypto firms chase charters while Congress stalls

Coinbase isn’t the only one eyeing a national-level license. Circle filed for the same kind of charter in June. Ripple followed in July. Paxos threw in its application by August. One firm, Anchorage Digital Bank NA, already holds a trust charter.

All of them want faster access to building crypto tools in a messy U.S. regulatory landscape that still can’t decide who oversees what.

Meanwhile, Congress is dragging its feet on another much-awaited crypto market structure bill. Lawmakers are trying to sort out who should regulate what and how to define digital assets under U.S. law.

The bill is supposed to go through markup in the Senate by late October, but nobody expects it to actually pass this year, what with all that Trump has dumped on the Congress.

Coinbase’s charter application is sort of a workaround this. They go federal, skip the state delays, and push ahead while Capitol Hill sits figuring out how to write rules.

And so far, the market seems to approve, because since January, Coinbase stock has surged by 53%, sitting at $380.02 at press time.

Coinbase shuts down GiveCrypto and experiments with crypto-based welfare

Coinbase has also been experimenting with what to do with its philanthropy programs… or at least, what’s left of them. In 2023, the company shut down GiveCrypto, its own donation effort. It admitted the project failed. “Unable to create lasting change,” the company said at the time.

Instead, Coinbase sent $2.6 million in leftover funds to GiveDirectly, a group better equipped to run welfare programs with crypto.

As Cryptopolitan reported, that money is now funding a new New York City program called “Future First”, run by GiveDirectly. The goal is to figure out if giving people crypto directly, with no strings, can help them make real decisions around housing, education, and stability.

Emma Kelsey, who oversees U.S. programs at GiveDirectly, said the project’s structure is different from traditional basic income tests.

Rather than drip-feeding monthly amounts, recipients in NYC are getting one $8,000 lump sum, followed by five smaller deposits of $800 each.

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