Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust company charter, aiming to significantly expand its federally regulated custody services for digital assets. If approved, the new entity would be known as Payward National Trust Company, providing fiduciary custody and related services primarily designed for institutional clients, while also catering to individuals requiring bank-level custody under federal oversight.
Strengthening Institutional Trust
Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi emphasized that the move reflects the company's long-standing belief that regulated infrastructure is essential for scaling digital assets. “A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody,” Sethi stated. The application builds directly on the regulatory groundwork laid by Kraken Financial, Payward's Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI), which is widely recognized as the first digital asset bank to hold a Federal Reserve master account. This dual foundation gives Payward a rare foothold across both state and federal banking frameworks.
Multi-Charter Strategy: SPDI and National Trust in Sync
A Wyoming SPDI and a federally chartered national trust company are designed to serve different client segments and regulatory contexts. Payward views them as complementary pieces of the same regulated banking strategy. “Our Wyoming SPDI and Federal Reserve master account represent a genuinely unique foundation, and the addition of a national trust company expands what we can offer our clients under an evolving U.S. regulatory framework,” Sethi remarked. The national trust charter, if granted, would establish Payward as a federally regulated qualified custodian, a designation many institutional investors require before allocating capital to digital assets through a third-party platform.
Growing Institutional Demand Drives Application
Demand for qualified custody has surged as more asset managers, pension funds, and corporations seek regulated access to digital assets. A federal charter from the OCC would allow Payward to serve clients across all 50 states without navigating a patchwork of individual state licensing requirements. Payward describes itself as a unified financial infrastructure platform built on a single shared architecture. Beyond Kraken, its product portfolio includes Ninjatrader, Breakout, xStocks, Bitnomial, and CF Benchmarks. The company separates infrastructure from product delivery, with each product designed for a specific customer segment and regulatory context while drawing on shared systems for liquidity, risk management, collateral, and settlement.
The OCC application was filed from Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Kraken Financial is also based. No timeline for OCC review or approval has been disclosed. Federal regulators have increased engagement with digital asset firms over the past two years. The OCC has previously granted conditional charters to crypto-focused companies, though national trust charters represent a distinct and more expansive category of federal authorization. Payward has not disclosed the projected capitalization or staffing structure for Payward National Trust Company ahead of the OCC review.