A US banking lobby group asked the agency that issues federal banking charters, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to reject Coinbase’s application for a fiduciary charter, arguing that the crypto exchange does not meet requirements in several categories.
The Independent Community Bankers of America, an influential group that focuses on the policy needs of thousands of smaller institutions, authored this latest attempt by the American banking sector to raise objections to the crypto industry’s inroads into overlapping territories once entirely controlled by traditional bankers. His Tuesday letter to the OCC said he “strongly” opposed Coinbase’s effort, which he said is failing “for multiple independent reasons, each of which is disqualifying under the OCC’s legal charter standards.”
This follows a similar effort last week by Wall Street lobbying group Bank Policy Institute opposing trust applications from several other cryptocurrency-linked companies, including Ripple, Circle and Paxos. BPI also took aim directly at Coinbase, in an additional effort on Monday.
The ICBA letter contends that Coinbase’s trust bank would have difficulty operating at a profit in a bear market, the OCC would face difficulty safely dissolving the trust if it failed, and that Coinbase National Trust Co. would rely on “demonstrably flawed risk and control functions.” The organization also maintained that the so-called OCC interpretive letter used as the basis for the exchange request was not properly issued.
The ICBA asked that the national banking regulator reject Coinbase’s application, or at least expand the portions of Coinbase’s application materials available for public view and hold a public hearing to examine it. BPI made a number of similar claims about the other companies.
Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, posted a response on social media site X, accusing bankers of “trying to dig regulatory moats to protect their own.”
“Imagine opposing a regulated trust statute because you prefer cryptocurrencies remain… unregulated,” he wrote. “That is the position of the ICBA.”
An OCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ICBA letter.
The largest U.S.-based digital asset exchange, whose CEO Brian Armstrong has been a frequent White House guest at recent crypto policy events, filed for the charter last month in an effort to expand services such as payments and settlements and ease demands that its new financial services face approvals in 50 different state jurisdictions. The company said it had no purpose of being a full-service bank.
“This request does not meet legal standards, presents complex security and soundness risks, and would set a dangerous precedent for the structure of the American banking system,” according to the letter, signed by Brian Laverdure, senior vice president of digital assets and innovation policy at ICBA.
The OCC has its permanent chief at the helm after the confirmation of Jonathan Gould, who was Bitfury’s chief legal officer and has been a critic of the crypto sector’s treatment of banks reluctant to do business with the emerging industry. Gould is among President Donald Trump’s few pro-cryptocurrency financial regulators to have been confirmed by the Senate so far, although the first year of the president’s four-year term is winding down.
Read more: Wall Street joins consumer advocates in calling for changes to the GENIUS Act on Stablecoins
UPDATE (November 4, 2025, 19:24 UTC): Adds Coinbase’s answer posted on X.
UPDATE (November 4, 2025, 20:40 UTC): Adds an additional letter from BPI about Coinbase.
