Key points

  • Block announced its Builders Bank charter application on September 8; approval remains pending.
  • The proposed uninsured trust bank would provide custody services without accepting deposits or making loans.
  • The public application outlines Bitcoin custody, customer transaction support and stablecoin transfers.

Block is seeking a US national trust bank charter to bring Bitcoin and stablecoin custody into a federally supervised institution. The payments company announced on September 8 that it had applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.

The proposal remains an application, rather than permission to start a new bank. Block said Builders Bank would begin operating only after obtaining the required regulatory approvals, making the OCC's review the next decisive step.

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A custody bank with a limited mandate

According to Block's announcement, Builders Bank would hold assets and provide related fiduciary services under OCC supervision. It would be uninsured and would neither accept deposits nor make loans, so the proposal should not be read as the launch of a conventional retail bank.

Cointelegraph's September 9 reporting also distinguishes the proposed custody business from deposit-taking and lending. That distinction matters for readers assessing what the announcement actually changes: it concerns the framework for safeguarding digital assets, rather than a newly available savings account or credit product.

What the public application describes

The application published on Block's investor website is dated September 4, before the September 8 announcement. Its public volume identifies Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as the proposed main office and describes an institution wholly owned by Block through intermediate holding companies.

The filing sets out custody and safekeeping of Bitcoin and other digital assets, execution of customer buy and sell instructions, and support for customer transfers. Stablecoin settlement and transfer services are also included in the proposed activities, placing payments infrastructure alongside custody in the plan.

Block says in the filing that it facilitated approximately $10.7 billion of annual Bitcoin transaction volume in fiscal 2025. It also reports approximately two million digital-asset monthly transacting active accounts through Cash App as of the second quarter of 2026; these are company-reported operating figures, not forecasts for the proposed bank.

Leadership and the national framework

Lee Woolley, currently Block's digital asset strategy lead, would become Builders Bank's president and chief executive. Block points to its existing digital-asset operations and its experience with Square Financial Services as foundations for the proposed institution.

The announcement says Woolley has more than two decades of banking and financial-services experience. His earlier roles include leading Treasury Department Federal Credit Union and senior positions at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, giving the proposed leadership team experience beyond crypto services.

Cointelegraph reports that the company's aim is to support a growing custody operation through a consistent national framework. The application therefore concerns how Block would organize and supervise some activities it already provides, as well as the services contemplated for Builders Bank.

An application in a wider industry shift

The Block places the announcement within a broader move by financial technology and crypto companies toward federal banking charters. Its September 8 report identifies several other applicants or approval recipients, while Cointelegraph likewise describes a growing field of firms pursuing national trust structures.

Those comparisons provide industry context, but another company's charter decision does not establish the outcome for Block. For now, the confirmed development is a publicly announced application with a defined custody-focused mandate; the proposed bank's operation remains conditional on regulatory approval.

Sources

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