Block wants a single federal charter to replace 50-plus state licenses for its crypto business

Block Inc. filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on September 8, 2026 to charter Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., a proposed national trust bank that would provide custody and fiduciary services for bitcoin and stablecoins, execute digital-asset trades on a riskless-principal basis, and facilitate stablecoin settlement. Because it would be a trust bank rather than a full commercial bank, Builders Bank would not accept deposits, extend loans, or carry FDIC insurance — its role would be narrowly about holding and moving digital assets under federal, rather than state-by-state, oversight.

That distinction matters for understanding what the filing is actually solving. Block currently operates its digital-asset business under more than 50 state money-transmitter and virtual-currency licenses, a patchwork that requires separate compliance regimes, examinations and renewal cycles in every state where it operates. A single OCC trust charter would let Block consolidate that fragmented state-by-state framework into one federally regulated entity — reducing regulatory complexity, though the application still requires OCC approval and the bank cannot begin operating until that approval is granted.

The filing landed within days of a separate move: Block is opening its Cash App Score — an internally generated creditworthiness signal drawn from Cash App user activity — to external lenders through Nova Credit’s data-sharing platform, and piloting a no-fee program that lets sole proprietors accept peer-to-peer payments and track business earnings directly inside their personal Cash App accounts rather than requiring a separate business account. Together, the moves point toward Block trying to make more of its internal financial data and infrastructure usable by outside parties — lenders scoring Cash App users, and, separately, a federally chartered vehicle for its own crypto custody — rather than keeping either entirely walled off inside its own product stack.

Block also disclosed a $45 million settlement with 46 states over fraud-protection claims tied to its payment products, a reminder that the company continues to face regulatory and legal exposure on the consumer-protection side even as it pursues an expanded federal charter for its digital-asset operations. Whether the OCC grants the trust charter, and on what timeline, remains the open question; the company has not disclosed an expected decision date.