Payward Seeks OCC National Trust Charter for Crypto Custody

Payward, the parent company of the Kraken exchange, filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust company charter to establish Payward National Trust Company.

The filing says the planned trust would provide regulated custody and trust services for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to institutional clients and individual customers. Payward intends to use its existing infrastructure, risk management, compliance programs and regulated affiliates to deliver those services.

The application follows conditional approvals granted to other crypto firms; Coinbase received a conditional national trust charter about a month earlier, and Ripple has also received conditional approval.

An OCC national trust charter permits a firm to operate as a federally chartered trust company and offer custody and fiduciary services under federal supervision instead of obtaining separate licenses in each state. Firms pursuing these charters argue a federal charter can simplify compliance for customers that operate nationwide.

A banking trade group with board members from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America at one point considered a legal challenge to the OCC’s decision to grant national trust charters to crypto and fintech firms. The group weighed arguing that the regulator was reinterpreting federal licensing rules despite warnings.

Arjun Sethi, co‑CEO of Payward and Kraken, said, “Our long‑held belief has always been that the right path forward for digital assets runs through robust, transparent regulation. A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody.”

If approved, Payward National Trust Company would operate under federal oversight alongside other firms that have sought OCC charters to expand regulated custody services.