Block has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter to establish Builders Bank & Trust. The proposed entity would be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, operating as an uninsured, non-depository institution that takes no deposits and makes no loans. Its primary functions include custodying Bitcoin and other digital assets, executing customer buy and sell orders on a riskless principal basis, and facilitating stablecoin settlement.
The application highlights Block's existing infrastructure, noting it has operated digital asset services for approximately eight years under more than 50 state licenses. In 2025, the company handled around $10.7 billion in Bitcoin transaction volume and served about two million monthly crypto users through Cash App by the second quarter. Lee Woolley, Block’s digital asset strategy lead and former executive at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, is designated to chair and serve as chief executive of the new bank. Jack Dorsey appears in the filing only as Block’s co-founder and is not listed among the organizers or directors.
This move represents a strategic shift from fragmented state-level compliance toward a unified federal regulatory framework. By seeking an OCC charter, Block aims to standardize its custody and settlement operations across jurisdictions, potentially reducing operational friction as it scales. The structure of Builders Bank & Trust—specifically its exclusion of traditional banking activities like lending and deposit-taking—signals an attempt to align with current regulatory interpretations of what constitutes permissible trust powers for crypto-native firms.
However, the path to approval remains uncertain given recent regulatory dynamics. While the OCC conditionally approved several crypto trust charters last year, including those for Circle and Ripple, it also denied Wise National Trust in July. Senator Elizabeth Warren has challenged the agency's authority to grant such charters to firms not performing traditional fiduciary work, creating potential political headwinds. Additionally, the inclusion of stablecoin settlement in the business plan contrasts with public statements by Jack Dorsey expressing skepticism toward stablecoins, suggesting internal strategic tensions or a pragmatic adaptation to market demand despite ideological preferences.
