Block applies to become a US crypto bank with Builders Bank & Trust

Block, the fintech company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., a national trust bank designed specifically to custody bitcoin and stablecoins. If approved, the bank would operate under direct federal oversight, skipping the patchwork of state-by-state licensing that currently governs Block’s digital asset operations. The filing, submitted on September 8, represents one of the most ambitious moves yet by a major publicly traded fintech company to bring crypto custody under a traditional banking framework. Block currently holds more than 50 state money-transmitter licenses to offer digital asset services. A single national charter would collapse that regulatory complexity into one federal relationship. What Builders Bank would actually do Builders Bank & Trust would be an uninsured national trust bank. That distinction matters. It means the institution would not accept deposits and would not make loans. No checking accounts, no mortgage origination, none of the activities that define a conventional commercial bank. Instead, its entire purpose would be custody and fiduciar...