Jack Dorsey’s payments company wants to replace a patchwork of more than 50 state licenses with a single federal structure, but approval is far from guaranteed.
Block, the payments company behind Square and Cash App, has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, seeking to consolidate its digital asset custody operations under a single federal regulatory framework.
In a press release Tuesday, the company said filed with the OCC on September 4 to charter Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank that would custody Bitcoin and other digital assets and settle stablecoins, taking no deposits and making no loans.
“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,” said Lee Woolley, who would chair and lead the institution as president and CEO if the charter is approved.
A national trust bank is a narrower designation than a full commercial banking license—it holds and safeguards assets on behalf of clients rather than taking deposits and lending money. The “uninsured” label means customer holdings would not carry FDIC protection, the federal backstop that covers ordinary bank accounts up to $250,000.
Block has run digital asset services under more than 50 state money transmitter and virtual currency licenses, handling around $10.7 billion in Bitcoin transaction volume in 2025 and serving about two million monthly crypto users through Cash App by the second quarter. A federal charter, the firm says, would allow it to support those activities “through a consistent national framework as the business scales.”
A bank with no branches, and no Dorsey
Builders Bank would be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with no physical branches. Lee Woolley added that Block looks forward to working with the OCC to pursue “a charter designed to support the secure custody of assets for Block and its customers.”
Jack Dorsey himself does not appear among the organizers, directors, or senior executives. He is named in the filing only as Block’s co-founder. The business plan and capital figures were submitted as confidential exhibits, and the bank cannot open unless the OCC formally approves the application—a process that can take many months.
The charter application includes stablecoin settlement as a core function, which sits uneasily with Dorsey’s publicly stated views. Earlier this year, Dorsey told WIRED:
“I don’t like that we’re going to support stablecoins, but our customers want to use them. I don’t think it’s wise to go from one gatekeeper to another.”
Dorsey has long argued that Bitcoin should serve as the internet’s native money protocol, and maintains that Bitcoin’s decentralized design makes it the strongest candidate for an open financial system. Block has nonetheless moved ahead with stablecoin integration, driven by customer demand and competition from rivals like Stripe and PayPal.m, with the Builders Bank filing reflecting that commercial reality is overriding Dorsey’s personal preference.
A crowded queue
Block is far from alone in seeking this kind of federal recognition. The OCC has conditionally approved applications or conversion requests for BitGo, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Ripple. Circle secured final approval in July 2026, and Coinbase received preliminary conditional approval in April 2026. Block’s application comes as a growing number of fintech and crypto companies seek federal bank charters.
Approval is not automatic, however. Of roughly 40 applications reviewed, 21 have been approved and two denied, including Wise National Trust in July. Applications from Morgan Stanley, Payoneer, Zerohash, Payward, and the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial remain on the agency’s pending list.
Legal cloud over the process
The broader charter push faces political and legal resistance. Earlier this year, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould arguing that charter approvals for crypto firms violated the National Bank Act and posed “serious risks” to the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system.
“These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank,” Warren said.
The legal controversy centers on what national trust banks are permitted to do. The National Bank Act allows national banks to limit their activities to “the operations of a trust company and activities related thereto.” In April 2026, the OCC finalized an amendment replacing the phrase “fiduciary activities” with that broader formulation—the wording Block’s application leans on. The OCC says the change neither expands nor contracts its authority. The industry disputes Warren’s reading, with the Digital Chamber trade group urging the OCC to defend its approvals.
Warren’s concerns are not purely procedural. She has also pressed Gould on the pending application from World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture linked to the Trump family, raising conflict-of-interest questions that complicate the political environment around the entire chartering process.
For Block, none of that changes the immediate task: wait for the OCC to begin its review, and hope the regulatory pipeline moves in its favor.