{"id":28217,"date":"2026-05-11T20:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/payward-charter-targets-federal-crypto-bank-status\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:54:08","slug":"payward-charter-targets-federal-crypto-bank-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/payward-charter-targets-federal-crypto-bank-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Payward charter targets federal crypto bank status"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Kraken\u2019s parent Payward has filed a Payward charter application with the OCC to establish a federally regulated national trust company.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_f5d1d4096daa0d4eef2cc8adb2c64c50\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Payward filed for an OCC national trust charter on May 8, proposing a new entity called Payward National Trust Company focused on digital asset custody.<\/li>\n<li>The trust would offer federally regulated custody to institutional clients without taking deposits or making loans.<\/li>\n<li>Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the OCC filing and Kraken\u2019s existing Wyoming SPDI are complementary pillars of Payward\u2019s regulated banking strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>Kraken\u2019s parent Payward has filed a Payward charter application with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, proposing a federally regulated entity called Payward National Trust Company. The filing was <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.kraken.com\/news\/payward-files-application-for-occ-national-trust-company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> on May 8 alongside a statement from Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, Payward National Trust Company would provide bank-level digital asset custody to institutional clients who require a federally regulated qualified custodian. It would not take deposits or make loans in the traditional sense.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the OCC charter means for Kraken<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cA national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody,\u201d Sethi <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.kraken.com\/news\/payward-files-application-for-occ-national-trust-company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a>. \u201cThis is not about being first; it is about getting the framework right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>Sethi described the OCC application and Kraken\u2019s existing Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution as \u201ccomplementary pillars\u201d of Payward\u2019s regulated banking strategy. Kraken Financial, the Wyoming-chartered arm, secured a Federal Reserve master account in March 2026, the first crypto-native firm to gain direct access to the Fed\u2019s payment rails.<\/p>\n<p>The OCC has already issued conditional approvals to several crypto firms this cycle. Ripple, Circle, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets received conditional national trust bank charters in December 2025. Crypto.com received its own conditional OCC approval in February 2026.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Context and what comes next<\/h3>\n<p>Payward has been rapidly building out its regulated US infrastructure. Its acquisition of Bitnomial for up to $550 million added a full CFTC derivatives stack, while its $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader in 2025 gave it retail futures access. <\/p>\n<p>The Payward charter would extend that regulatory footprint to federal custody, completing a vertically integrated platform spanning trading, clearing, and safekeeping of digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>The OCC approval process is expected to be thorough and multi-stage. Anchorage Digital remains the only crypto-native firm to hold a full national charter to date, with all other recent approvals still conditional.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kraken\u2019s parent Payward has filed a Payward charter application with the OCC to establish a federally regulated national trust company. Summary Payward filed for an OCC national trust charter on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28218,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28217\/revisions\/28218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}