The BitPay entity, if approved, would be called BitPay National Trust Bank. Banks would have a limited-purpose dedicated only to fiduciary activities.
The processor of payments with bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, BitPay, and the issuer of the stablecoin PAX, Paxos filed applications with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), in the United States, to create regulated federal banks.
Bitpay’s move was made known on Wednesday after the publication of a legal notice in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. If the petition is approved, the entity would be called BitPay National Trust Bank and would now set its headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Eden Doniger confirmed this information; the executive said that the application is the first step in a long way to launch the regulated institution:
“We confirm that BitPay has applied with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish the BitPay National Trust Bank. A national trust bank is a limited-purpose bank that engages in fiduciary activities,”explained Doniger, adding that potential operations would be subject to strict security measures to offer guarantiees to users.
BitPay’s request stipulates a possible capitalization of $ 12 million and the issuance of about 120 million shares. Besides, BitPay opened its doors recently for anyone to issue comments to the offices of the currency controller or the director of licenses.
Paxos also wants to be a Bank
In the case of Paxos, if the application gains its approval, it then becomes the first company in the bitcoin ecosystem to be regulated at both the state and federal (national) levels. Remember that Paxos received an audit by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
The Paxos bank would be called Paxos National Trust and would arrive to increase the portfolio of services that the company is currently offering, some of these services are: custody services, cryptocurrency exchange, and fiat through itBit, issuance of stablecoins PAX and BUSD together with Binance and some fiduciary services for its license in New York.
Through a statement released Wednesday, Dan Burstein, Paxos’ chief compliance officer, and general counsel, said that the company’s goal is to “modernize the financial market infrastructure and allow the movement of any asset, at any time, in a trustworthy.”
It is unclear how long the office of the comptroller of the currency will have to respond to the requests presented. The firm is currently in hands of Brian Brooks, who in the past was also a director of Coinbase, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world, as reported by CryptoNews.
In a recent interview with Forbes, Brian Brooks indicated that he expects very soon the United States would have “cryptocurrency banks” Very soon but also pointed out that these American banks will need to comply with a series of regulations throughout the country since this process is what makes “markets grow.”
By Jenson Nuñez
