EDX Markets Holding Company has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish EDX Trust, National Association, a new national trust bank headquartered in Chicago. The application, made public on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, and first reported by Bloomberg, seeks full fiduciary powers under 12 U.S.C. § 92a and permission to offer digital asset custody, wealth management, and settlement services exclusively to institutional clients.
Application Details
The proposed bank would be located at 200 W. Madison, Suite 1450, Chicago, IL 60606. It would operate under a non-custodial model, meaning it will not hold client assets during trading, aligning with how traditional financial institutions (TradFi) separate custody from execution. Custody, wealth management, and settlement would reside with EDX Trust, while order matching and trading would remain with the affiliate EDX Markets LLC.
If approved, EDX Trust would offer fiduciary custody of digital assets, cash, and stablecoins, using sub-custodian banks to manage private keys and reduce single points of failure. It would also manage custodial cash and stablecoins by investing in highly liquid assets, aiming for returns near the federal funds rate, along with permitted staking and yield-generating activities. Settlement services would include risk-free principal trading and end-of-day net settlement for clients active on the EDX Markets platform or over-the-counter (OTC) trading platforms. The bank would not engage in proprietary trading.
Background and Backers
Launched in June 2023, EDX Markets is a cryptocurrency exchange solely for institutional investors. Its founding backers include Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Virtu Financial, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Hudson River Trading, and Miami International Holdings. The platform originally operated on a non-custodial model, a structure that mirrors traditional finance's separation of custody and execution.
The proposed board of directors consists of five members, including independent directors with banking and risk management backgrounds from First Business Financial, UBS, and Charles Schwab. The management team includes executives who have worked at Cboe Digital, the Options Clearing Corporation, Coinbase, and Kraken. CEO José Antonio Acuña-Rohter, who previously led ErisX and Cboe Digital, heads the project. The bank will have no physical branches and no retail activities; all operations will be electronic via APIs and a graphical interface.
Regulatory Context and Industry Impact
The OCC added the application to its public list of pending digital asset charter applications on March 26, 2026. No timeline for a decision has been announced. The filing joins a growing list of crypto and fintech firms that have applied for a national trust bank charter since late 2025. In December 2025, the OCC granted conditional approvals to five crypto-related entities, including new charters for Ripple National Trust Bank and First National Digital Currency Bank, along with conversions for Bitgo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. Early 2026 saw additional approvals for Crypto.com and Stripe's Bridge division.
Pending applications as of April 1 include Revolut Bank US, Zerohash National Trust Bank, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, Coinbase National Trust Company, and World Liberty Trust Company, which has ties to the Trump family.
A new OCC final rule effective April 1, 2026, clarifies that national trust banks may, on a case-by-case basis, exercise trust company powers and engage in non-fiduciary digital asset custody activities. The rule removes a layer of legal uncertainty that had slowed institutional adoption. A federal charter allows a firm to operate nationwide under a single regulatory framework, bypassing most state licensing requirements—a critical distinction for institutions that require regulated custody before allocating to digital assets.
The OCC will review the EDX Trust application for safety and soundness, capital adequacy, and compliance. The filing includes extensive confidential attachments, including the business plan and financial projections, for which EDX has requested FOIA protection.