Washington Shapes Crypto Custody Landscape with Conditional Approvals

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has been conditionally approving crypto-related national trust bank applications at a rapid pace. Since December 2025, at least eight firms have received approval to operate under federal supervision. These approvals are significant because they establish a supervised custody layer for digital assets.

The approved firms share certain characteristics that regulators value, including scale, existing compliance infrastructure, and institutional client bases. This push toward institutional credibility in crypto mirrors the broader trend of blockchain technology meeting regulatory standards head-on.

The implications of this development are far-reaching. Institutional investors will gravitate towards OCC-supervised custodians due to their increased regulatory credibility. This concentration raises a structural question: with Coinbase holding a significant share of custodied assets, the federally approved tier may control a disproportionate share of U.S. crypto custody.