Kraken owner applies for OCC national trust charter after $600 deal

Kraken’s parent company Payward has applied for a national trust company charter with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a federally regulated entity focused on digital asset custody. The proposed entity is called Payward National Trust Company (PNTC).

The move, first reported by CoinDesk, comes as the firm accelerates its acquisition push. Just yesterday, Payward announced it would acquire Asia’s stablecoin-focused firm Reap Technologies for $600 million. The company has spent $2.7 billion on acquisitions in roughly a year.

Wyoming charter and its limits

Kraken Financial received a Federal Reserve master account in March, marking a historic first for a digital asset bank and enabling direct access to the core US payment infrastructure.

But state charters have geographic and operational limits. A national trust charter would work alongside Kraken Financial, expanding Payward’s presence across both state and federal banking frameworks.

The Trump administration’s warm posture toward digital assets has helped transform federal crypto licensing from a dead end into a viable path.

Between December 2025 and March 2026, the OCC conditionally approved or advanced 11 crypto-related trust-charter applications, including firms such as Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, Bridge, Crypto.com, and Zerohash, to name a few.

Financial performance and valuation

Payward reported $2.2 billion in adjusted revenue in 2025, up 33% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA of $531 million, up 26%. Kraken ended the year with 5.7 million funded accounts and $2 trillion in platform transaction volume.

The company’s valuation was pegged at $20 billion in late 2025 and later implied at $13 billion in April 2026 through a secondary share transaction.

Kraken has said it is about 80% ready for an IPO, with the listing paused but not abandoned. A federal trust charter would be a meaningful credential for public market investors.