Block applies for federal trust bank charter to custody Bitcoin and stablecoins

Block Inc. has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., an uninsured, non-depository national trust bank. Led by Lee Woolley, the proposed South Dakota-based institution will focus on custody and fiduciary services for Bitcoin and stablecoins under a unified federal framework. The move aligns Block with a broader industry trend of crypto firms seeking OCC charters, though the practice faces political pushback from lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Builders Bank trust charter application

• ▪Builders Bank & Trust would be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with no physical branches, and Block Inc. has requested that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency waive the requirement that at least one director live within 100 miles.
• ▪Lee Woolley, Block Inc.'s digital asset strategy lead and a former executive at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, is designated to serve as the president and CEO of Builders Bank & Trust.
• ▪Block, Inc. submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on September 8, 2026, to establish an uninsured national trust bank named Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.

Federal custody framework rationale

• ▪A national trust bank charter provides cryptocurrency companies with a recognized federal regulatory framework that helps navigate varying state regulations and offers institutional clients the comfort of federally supervised oversight.
• ▪Block Inc. stated that a federal national trust bank charter would establish a consistent national supervisory framework for its digital asset custody activities as the business scales.

Block's existing digital asset operations

• ▪Block, Inc. already operates Square Financial Services, an industrial bank that began operations in 2021, which would remain a separate entity from the proposed Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.
• ▪Block Inc. processed approximately $10.7 billion in Bitcoin transaction volume in 2025 and served about two million monthly active cryptocurrency users through Cash App by the second quarter of 2026.
• ▪Block Inc. has operated digital asset services for approximately eight years under more than 50 state money transmitter and virtual currency licenses.

Industry trend toward OCC charters

• ▪Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in May 2026, accusing the regulator of abusing the National Bank Act by granting national trust charters to crypto firms that do not perform traditional fiduciary work.
• ▪The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency received 40 de novo bank charter applications between early 2025 and August 2026, of which 23 involved digital asset activities.
• ▪The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted conditional trust charter approvals to several digital asset firms, including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, Coinbase, and World Liberty Financial.

Non-depository trust bank structure

• ▪Unlike commercial banks, national trust bank charters do not guarantee access to Federal Reserve payment systems, and their uninsured status limits risk by focusing solely on asset custody.
• ▪Builders Bank & Trust would operate as a non-depository, uninsured institution that provides custody and fiduciary services for Bitcoin and stablecoins without taking deposits or issuing loans.

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