EDX Markets, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange backed by Citadel Securities, Virtu Financial, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Hudson River Trading, has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter.
If approved, the charter would allow EDX to provide custody, asset management, and principal trading services alongside its existing order-matching business.
The application argues that vertically integrated crypto entities, which house brokerage, exchange, and custody functions under a single roof, create conflicts of interest and systemic risk through a single point of failure. Separating custody and asset management into an OCC-chartered national trust bank would provide customers with a more secure regulatory structure, EDX stated.
Regulatory context and competitive positioning
The application places EDX among a growing number of crypto firms pursuing trust bank charters under the current OCC leadership, which has adopted a more open posture toward new bank formation in the digital asset sector than previous administrations. In December 2025, five crypto companies, including Circle Internet Group and Ripple, received conditional approval for trust bank charters. EDX joins that pipeline as the firm seeks to position itself as infrastructure for traditional finance institutions entering the digital asset market.
EDX was founded in 2022 specifically to serve traditional finance clients, including institutional brokers and market makers, seeking regulated access to digital asset trading. The trust charter application reflects a strategy of mirroring the structural separation of roles that exists in conventional equities and derivatives markets, where brokers, market makers, exchanges, and custodians operate as distinct entities, and applying that model to crypto.
Tony Acuña-Rohter, CEO of EDX Markets, said the next wave of crypto adoption will be driven by large banks, and that an OCC-chartered trust structure gives EDX a competitive advantage in servicing those firms.
