Payward seeks OCC national trust charter for regulated crypto custody

Kraken parent Payward has filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create the Payward National Trust Company (PNTC). The goal is to expand federally regulated digital-asset custody for institutional clients under an OCC custody framework and to support qualified-custodian status—without deposit-taking or lending. Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the move complements Kraken Financial, which already holds a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) charter and a Federal Reserve master account, giving it direct access to Fed payment systems. The filing lands amid a broader OCC charter push. Coinbase received conditional OCC approval earlier this year, while other firms have also obtained or pursued approvals. This matters to traders because an OCC bank charter and OCC custody credentials can improve institutional compliance confidence and potentially accelerate regulated settlement and custody flows. However, it is still an application stage. OCC reviews can be slow and unpredictable, and building custody infrastructure is capital-intensive. If more applicants receive conditional approvals, competition for institutional custody clients will likely shift toward service quality, technology, and supported assets rather than regulation alone. Separately, Kraken is expanding aggressively with the planned $600 million acquisition of stablecoin firm Reap Technologies and the $550 million buy of derivatives venue Bitnomial. Kraken also confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO after raising $800 million at a reported $20 billion valuation.