Block Files for OCC Trust Bank Charter for Crypto

Highlights

Block has filed with the OCC to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., an uninsured national trust bank for bitcoin and stablecoin custody.
Lee Woolley, Block's Digital Asset Strategy Lead, would become the bank's President and CEO if approved.
The bank would not accept deposits or make loans, operating purely as a custody-focused trust institution.
Block joins Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle in seeking similar federal charters as the OCC turns more crypto-friendly.

Jack Dorsey's payments company Block has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter, seeking to establish an entity called Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. that would custody bitcoin and stablecoins under direct federal oversight. The proposed bank would be uninsured and would not accept deposits or make loans, operating instead as a dedicated custody institution for digital assets. Lee Woolley, who currently serves as Block's Digital Asset Strategy Lead and previously led the Treasury Department Federal Credit Union, would take over as the bank's President and CEO if the charter is approved. The filing places Block alongside a growing list of crypto and fintech firms racing to secure the same kind of federal charter.

A Banker's Résumé for a Crypto Bank

Builders Bank would operate as a non-deposit-taking national trust bank, a structure that lets a company offer custody and related services under a consistent federal framework rather than a patchwork of state-by-state money transmitter licenses. Woolley brings more than two decades of banking experience to the role, having previously served as President and CEO of the Treasury Department Federal Credit Union and held senior positions at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon — a résumé aimed at reassuring regulators that Block's proposed bank would be run by an experienced, traditional banker rather than a crypto-native operator. Block's application arrives amid a genuine rush of fintech and crypto companies seeking the same charter type: Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle have all filed comparable applications with the newly crypto-friendly OCC in recent months. Block itself already handles bitcoin and stablecoin-adjacent products through Cash App and other services, giving Builders Bank a built-in base of activity to formalize under a bank charter rather than starting the custody business from scratch.

Why the Charter Rush Matters

A federal trust charter would give Block a materially stronger competitive position in crypto custody, letting it offer bitcoin and stablecoin safekeeping under a single national framework instead of relying on state licenses or third-party custodians. That matters directly for Cash App's tens of millions of users, many of whom already buy and hold bitcoin through the app, since in-house federally chartered custody would reduce counterparty risk and could unlock new product lines, from institutional custody services to expanded stablecoin settlement. For the broader industry, each additional OCC filing adds pressure on the agency to move faster and establish clearer, more consistent standards for what a digital-asset trust bank actually looks like, since regulators reviewing several similar applications simultaneously are effectively writing policy through the approval process itself. It also intensifies competitive dynamics among the applicants: Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle are all racing for a similar structural advantage, and whichever companies actually receive approval — rather than just file — stand to gain a meaningful head start in marketing regulated custody to institutional clients who have been waiting for exactly this kind of federal cover before committing larger balances to crypto infrastructure.

What Comes Next

OCC approvals for this category of charter have typically taken several months to a year once an application is deemed complete, so Builders Bank is unlikely to be operational before well into 2027 even under a favorable review. The more immediate signal to watch is whether the OCC grants any of the pending applications — from Block, Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, or Circle — in the coming months, since a single approval would set a template the others could point to in their own reviews, much like the conditional charter recently granted to World Liberty Financial. Block's choice of a seasoned banking executive as CEO, rather than an internal crypto product lead, suggests the company is positioning its application to look as conventional as possible to a still-cautious regulator.

FAQ

What is Builders Bank & Trust?
It is the national trust bank Block has applied to the OCC to establish, designed to custody bitcoin and stablecoins under federal oversight.

Will Builders Bank take deposits or make loans?
No. It would be an uninsured, non-deposit-taking institution focused solely on custody services.

Who would run Builders Bank?
Lee Woolley, currently Block's Digital Asset Strategy Lead, would serve as President and CEO. He previously led the Treasury Department Federal Credit Union and held senior roles at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon.

What other companies have filed for similar federal charters?
Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle have all filed comparable applications with the OCC in recent months.