Key Takeaways
- Payward, the parent company of Kraken, filed an OCC application to establish a national trust company for institutional digital asset custody.
- The proposed Payward National Trust Company would complement Kraken Financial, which holds a Federal Reserve master account as a Wyoming SPDI.
- Co-CEO Arjun Sethi says the multi-charter strategy positions Payward to serve a broader range of U.S. clients as federal digital asset rules continue to develop in 2025.
Kraken’s Parent Files OCC Trust Charter Application to Serve U.S. Institutional Clients
If approved by the OCC, the new entity would operate as Payward National Trust Company, providing fiduciary custody and related services primarily for digital assets. The company expects to serve both institutional clients and individual customers who require bank-level custody under federal oversight.
Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the move reflects a long-standing position that regulated infrastructure is the correct path for digital assets to scale. “A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody,” Sethi said.
The OCC application builds directly on the regulatory groundwork Payward laid through Kraken Financial, its Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution. Kraken Financial is widely noted as the first digital asset bank to hold a Federal Reserve master account, a distinction that gives Payward a rare foothold across both state and federal banking frameworks.
A Wyoming SPDI and a federally chartered national trust company are designed to serve different client needs and regulatory contexts. Together, Payward positions them as complementary pieces of the same regulated banking strategy.
“Our Wyoming SPDI and Federal Reserve master account represent a genuinely unique foundation, and the addition of a national trust company expands what we can offer our clients under an evolving U.S. regulatory framework,” Sethi remarked.
The national trust charter, if granted, would establish Payward as a federally regulated qualified custodian, a designation that many institutional investors require before allocating capital to digital assets through a third-party platform.
Institutional demand for qualified custody has grown as more asset managers, pension funds, and corporations seek regulated access to digital assets. A federal charter from the OCC would allow Payward to serve clients across all 50 states without navigating a patchwork of individual state licensing requirements.
Payward describes itself as a unified financial infrastructure platform built on a single shared architecture. Beyond Kraken, its product portfolio includes Ninjatrader, Breakout, xStocks, Bitnomial, and CF Benchmarks.
The company separates infrastructure from product delivery, with each product designed for a specific customer segment and regulatory context while drawing on shared systems for liquidity, risk management, collateral, and settlement.
The OCC application was filed from Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Kraken Financial is also based. No timeline for OCC review or approval has been disclosed.
Federal regulators have increased engagement with digital asset firms over the past two years. The OCC has previously granted conditional charters to crypto-focused companies, though national trust charters represent a distinct and more expansive category of federal authorization.
Payward has not disclosed the projected capitalization or staffing structure for Payward National Trust Company ahead of the OCC review.
