Block, the payments company led by Jack Dorsey, has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., an uninsured, non-deposit-taking national trust bank. The proposed entity would provide custody and fiduciary services for Bitcoin and stablecoins, moving some of Block’s existing digital asset activities under a single federal regulatory framework.
Lee Woolley, proposed president and CEO of Builders Bank, said the combination of Block’s digital-asset experience and Square Financial Services positions the new bank to support the company’s broader vision of economic empowerment. The application is a first step: no OCC approval has been granted, and no launch date or detailed custody offering has been disclosed.
The filing arrives amid a broader charter rush. The OCC said it received 40 new-bank charter applications over roughly 18 months, with 23 involving digital-asset activity. Of those, 21 were approved and two denied, according to The Block. Comptroller Jonathan Gould said digital-asset initiatives have increased eightfold over the past four years.
Other firms have recently advanced through the OCC process. Conditional approvals or conversions have included BitGo, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ripple and Circle’s proposed First National Digital Currency Bank. Coinbase received preliminary conditional approval on April 2, 2026; Circle obtained final approval on July 10 to set up Circle National Trust bank; and Revolut received approval on September 2 as a full-service insured national bank.
Still, the trust charter is not a commercial bank license. Builders Bank would be uninsured and unable to take deposits or make loans. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized such charters in a May 18 letter, arguing they let crypto companies evade what she called the fundamental safeguards and obligations of banks. The OCC’s proposed rules under the GENIUS Act cover reserves, redemption, custody, risk management and issuer applications, while the BIS and IMF have warned about the global implications of dollar stablecoins.
