The parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has joined a wave of peers to apply for a 'national trust' company status, which would give it access to provide qualified fiduciary custody and other digital asset services in the US.
Kraken Parent Payward Applies for US Federal Licence To Support Growth
11 May 2026 - 03:36 CEST
The application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is another piece in the company’s multi-charter strategy after Kraken Financial, its chartered bank based in the state of Wyoming, was granted a Federal Reserve master account in March. It became the first digital asset bank in the US to gain direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment infrastructure.
Certainty for institutions
"A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody," Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said in an 8 May statement.
"This is not about being first; it is about getting the framework right, so markets can scale with clarity, interoperability, and long-term vision for what clients will demand as these systems mature," he said, in an apparent nod to the crypto companies that have already received conditional approval for their applications.
Among those that have received a preliminary OCC nod are Circle, Coinbase, Ripple and Crypto.com.
Having a master account allows Kraken to settle US dollars directly on Fedwire and FedNow, bypassing the need to use partner banks to clear fiat currency. While this was a solution to payment issues, gaining approval for the national trust company would complete the regulatory gap by also green lighting fiduciary custody.
Deals spree
The company has been on a rapid-fire buying spree, completing a roughly $1.5bn purchase of NinjaTrader on top of an agreed $550mn acquisition of Bitnomial, a US derivatives exchange and broker. It said last week that it had begun offering crypto margin trading in the US.
Earlier this month, Payward agreed to buy Hong Kong-based fintech firm Reap Technologies for $600mn. Reap connects traditional corporate card networks with stablecoin-powered cross-border settlements.
Kraken handles about $1.3bn in daily spot trading volume and holds a top-tier trust score among exchanges, according to CoinGecko. It filed a confidential Initial Public Offering (IPO) statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Based on a $200mn strategic investment for 1.5% of Payward by Deutsche Borse announced in April, the implied valuation of Kraken is around $13bn. A November agreement for a $200 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities was executed at a $20 billion valuation, Kraken said at the time.
