Jack Dorsey’s Block Becomes Latest Bitcoin-Focused Company To Apply for Banking Charter
Bitcoin Magazine Jack Dorsey’s Block Becomes Latest Bitcoin-Focused Company To Apply for Banking Charter Block wants the banking license so it can open Builders Bank, which would provide custody and...
Block wants the banking license so it can open Builders Bank, which would provide custody and related fiduciary services for bitcoin.
Bitcoin-focused Block Inc. has become the latest company to apply for a U.S. banking charter.
The company, which manages Square, Cash App, and Bitkey, said Wednesday that it had submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.
Block joins a long-list of digital asset firms that have received conditional approval or are awaiting approval from the regulator to have the license. The charter would allow companies — if fully approved — to have certain banking powers, such as custody assets and move client funds.
JUST IN: Block applies to establish Builders Bank & Trust with the OCC, which would provide federally regulated custody and "fiduciary services" for Bitcoin and stablecoins. 👀 pic.twitter.com/Dkq7WIg6Wa
“Building on Block’s experience in the digital asset space, our history with Square Financial Services, and the deep banking expertise of the team we’ve assembled, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment,” Lee Woolley, who would serve as President and CEO of Builders Bank, said in a statement.
Block said that, if approved, Builders Bank would operate as a federally regulated national trust bank under OCC supervision and provide custody and related fiduciary services, including for bitcoin and stablecoins.
A number of top crypto companies have received conditional approval, including Coinbase, Circle, Crypto.com, and Paxos.
Decentralized financial protocol World Liberty Financial, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, also received approval this year.
Block CEO and founder Jack Dorsey, a Bitcoin maximalist, has been pushing for the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency to become everyday money.
His point-of-sale products, Square, last year rolled out bitcoin acceptance for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, with no setup required and transactions instantly converted to dollars at checkout.
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Block's banking charter application signals an inflection point: major fintech infrastructure players are now seeking federal regulatory capture rather than circumventing it. This mirrors the sector's maturation trajectory—from regulatory arbitrage (offshore exchanges, unbanked custody) to compliance-first infrastructure. Block's existing Square merchant ecosystem and Cash App user base create material regulatory advantage; the OCC has already approved similar charters for Coinbase and Paxos, establishing precedent. The filing suggests confidence that bitcoin custody—once viewed as high-risk by regulators—now meets prudential standards.
Builders Bank's positioning around 'fiduciary services' is strategically significant. This language indicates Block intends to operate under heightened fiduciary duty rather than as a custodian-only service, potentially enabling broader wealth management integration. However, the timeline remains uncertain; conditional approvals (Coinbase, Paxos, Circle) have weathered multi-year approval cycles and changing regulatory winds. A federal charter also locks Block into OCC oversight during an administration sympathetic to crypto—but this calculus reverses with future political cycles.
The real second-order effect: if approved, Block gains regulatory moat against fintech entrants while simultaneously expanding bitcoin's institutional on-ramp. Square's merchant base becomes a distribution channel for custody services. This is not disruptive to DeFi—it's competitive pressure on custodians like Kraken and accelerates concentration of on-chain liquidity fragmentation between federally regulated trusts and permissionless protocols.