Coinbase trust charter cleared as senators demand crypto records

Coinbase said on Nov. 9 that its national trust company has final approval to open, capping a process that began with a preliminary conditional green light from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in April. The company says the charter hands its custody business a consistent federal framework. Regulators are widening the lanes for crypto firms to operate under US rules — and congressional investigators want to see the paperwork behind those calls.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren got there first. In a May 18 letter to the OCC, she challenged at least nine crypto trust-charter approvals, Coinbase's earlier conditional approval among them. She demanded the applications, the legal analyses that justified them, and any communications between OCC officials and the White House or the Trump family.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal turned up the heat four days before Coinbase's announcement, renewing his push for records from Binance, Tether and two ventures tied to Trump. He gave them until Jan. 4, 2027, to hand the documents over voluntarily, warning that his subcommittee could take other steps to get them.

Lawmakers say they want to know how regulators justified the new trust charters, how crypto companies handled compliance, and what dealings those firms had with people connected to President Donald Trump's administration.