Block (NYSE: XYZ) has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. The proposed national trust bank would focus on digital-asset custody. Block filed the application on September 4 and announced it on September 8. If regulators approve it, Builders Bank would handle Bitcoin, stablecoins and other supported digital assets under federal supervision.
For customers, the practical change is supervisory rather than commercial. Block already runs this business under more than 50 state licences, and a single federal charter would put it under one regulator instead. The services on offer would not change.
Block plans a federal framework for crypto custody
Builders Bank would not accept deposits or make loans. Its planned services include custody, asset transfers and stablecoin settlement. The bank would also execute customer buy and sell orders without taking open market risk. Block says the charter would place some existing crypto services under one national framework as the business grows.
Block currently runs regulated digital-asset services through more than 50 state money transmitter and virtual currency licenses. The company says it has worked in this area for about eight years. A federal charter would move the proposed bank under direct OCC supervision.
Lee Woolley, Block’s digital asset strategy lead, would serve as president and chief executive. Block says he has more than two decades of banking experience. His past roles include senior positions at Northern Trust, BNY, and the Treasury Department Federal Credit Union.
Woolley said Block’s digital-asset experience and Square Financial Services position the proposed bank to support the company’s “broader vision of economic empowerment”.
Cash App shows the scale Block already runs
Block’s filing also gives a measure of its current crypto business. Cash App Bitcoin and Square Bitcoin handled about $10.7 billion in Bitcoin transaction volume during fiscal 2025. By the second quarter of 2026, Cash App served about two million monthly users who actively transacted in digital assets.
Block already offers several Bitcoin products. Cash App lets customers buy, sell, and transfer Bitcoin. Bitkey is a self-custody Bitcoin wallet, while Proto develops Bitcoin mining products and services. Square also supports Bitcoin payments for merchants. Builders Bank would operate separately from these products if the OCC grants the charter.
The OCC is fielding more digital-asset charter applications
The filing comes during a rise in federal bank charter requests. OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in August that the agency had received 40 new bank charter applications over about 18 months. He said 23 of those 40 business plans included some form of digital-asset activity.
That growth has drawn congressional scrutiny. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Gould in May, saying the agency had approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies in ways that may exceed the activities the National Bank Act permits, and questioning whether some applicants were eligible.
The OCC has also issued recent charter decisions involving Revolut and World Liberty Trust Company. Crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Paxos and BitGo have pursued national trust charters. Payward, Kraken’s parent, has applied for a charter on comparable terms, covering digital-asset custody without deposits or conventional loans.
Block cannot open Builders Bank unless the OCC approves the application. The filing lists Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as the proposed main office, with no physical branches. [EDITOR: source the Sept. 8 close of $80.10, down 3.21%, or cut it.]
This article is for information only. It is not investment advice. Figures come from Block’s filing and OCC statements on the dates shown. The charter is an application and confers no authority until the OCC rules on it.
Disclaimer
This article is provided for information only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
