Jack Dorsey's Block Applies for Bank Charter to Custody Bitcoin

Block submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on September 4 seeking a national trust bank charter for Builders Bank & Trust. The proposed institution would be uninsured and non-depository, focusing on custody of Bitcoin and other digital assets, executing customer trades on a riskless principal basis, and providing stablecoin settlement services. The filing says the bank would not accept deposits or extend loans.

The company told regulators it has operated digital-asset services for roughly eight years under more than 50 state money transmitter and virtual-currency licenses. In 2025 Block reported handling about $10.7 billion in Bitcoin transaction volume and serving roughly two million monthly crypto users through Cash App by the second quarter. Block said a federal charter would allow it to support those operations under a single national framework as the business grows; its business plan and capital figures were filed as confidential exhibits and the bank would not launch without OCC approval.

Builders Bank would be based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and would have no branches. All five proposed directors listed in the filing live outside South Dakota, and Block has asked the OCC to waive the rule that requires one director to reside within 100 miles of the bank. Lee Woolley, Block's digital-asset strategy lead and a former executive at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, is named to serve as chair and chief executive. Jack Dorsey is not listed among organizers, directors or senior executives and appears in the filing only as Block's co-founder. The application also notes a stablecoin role for the bank, despite Dorsey's stated preference for building on Bitcoin over stablecoins.

The filing comes amid active OCC consideration of crypto trust charters. The agency conditionally approved five crypto trust charters last December and approved additional applicants in subsequent months, while denying at least one application in July. The OCC revised its chartering-rule language in April from references to "fiduciary activities" to "operations of a trust company and activities related thereto," wording that Block relies on in its submission; the agency says the amendment does not change the scope of its authority. Some lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, contend the OCC lacks authority to grant trust charters to firms that do not perform traditional fiduciary work, a point the industry disputes.