Key Takeaways:
Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart notes over 20 crypto firms now seek OCC charters to integrate with banks. Securing 1 federal OCC charter gives firms like Ripple credibility to attract serious institutional capital. Next, 20+ OCC-chartered crypto firms, like Coinbase, will unlock large banks and sovereign wealth funds. The End of the Decentralized Fantasy: Why Crypto Firms Are Now Seeking to Become BanksBogart explained that this shift is linked to the collapse of the sponsor bank model, as banks were co-opted into dropping some customers, including crypto-linked businesses, elevating the risk of isolation.
While the OCC charter is rather limited in its scope and does not allow these companies to receive deposits or open lending opportunities, he acknowledges that it gives them “a single federal license, one regulator and, perhaps most importantly, the credibility to be a counterparty to serious institutional capital.”
“A federally chartered and supervised institution clears those filters much cleaner than a state-licensed model does,” Bogart concluded.
