EDX Markets Holding Firm Information OCC Constitution Software for Crypto Belief Financial institution
The appliance was made public on Wednesday, April 1, and first reported on by Bloomberg. It requests full fiduciary powers underneath 12 U.S.C. § 92a and authorization to supply digital asset custody, asset administration, and settlement providers solely for institutional shoppers. The proposed principal workplace is situated at 200 W. Madison, Suite 1450, Chicago, IL 60606.
EDX Markets launched in June 2023 as an institutional-only cryptocurrency change. Its founding backers embrace Citadel Securities, Constancy Digital Property, Charles Schwab, Virtu Monetary, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Hudson River Buying and selling, and Miami Worldwide Holdings.
The platform operates on a non-custodial mannequin, which means it doesn’t maintain consumer belongings throughout buying and selling, a construction that mirrors how conventional finance (TradFi) companies separate custody from execution. The proposed belief financial institution wouldn’t change that separation. EDX Belief would deal with custody, asset administration, and settlement. Order matching and buying and selling would stay with its affiliate, EDX Markets LLC.
If authorized, EDX Belief would supply fiduciary custody of digital belongings, money, and stablecoins, utilizing sub-custodian banks to handle personal keys and cut back single factors of failure. The financial institution would additionally handle custodied money and stablecoins by investing them in extremely liquid belongings, focusing on returns close to the federal funds charge, together with permissible staking and yield-generating exercise.
Settlement providers would come with riskless principal buying and selling and end-of-day web settlement for shoppers working on the EDX Markets platform or in over-the-counter (OTC) venues. The financial institution wouldn’t conduct proprietary buying and selling.
The proposed board consists of 5 members, amongst them independents with banking and threat backgrounds from First Enterprise Monetary, UBS, and Charles Schwab. Administration attracts from executives who’ve labored at Cboe Digital, the Choices Clearing Company, Coinbase, and Kraken.
CEO José Antonio Acuña-Rohter, who beforehand led ErisX and Cboe Digital, is heading the hassle. The financial institution would don’t have any bodily branches and no retail providers. All operations would run electronically by means of APIs and a graphical interface.
The OCC added the applying to its public checklist of pending digital asset licensing functions on March 26. No resolution timeline has been introduced.
The submitting joins a rising checklist of crypto and fintech companies looking for nationwide belief financial institution charters since late 2025. In December 2025, the OCC granted conditional approvals to 5 crypto-related establishments, together with de novo charters for Ripple Nationwide Belief Financial institution and First Nationwide Digital Forex Financial institution, together with conversions for Bitgo, Constancy Digital Property, and Paxos. Early 2026 noticed further approvals for Crypto.com and Stripe’s Bridge unit.
Pending functions as of April 1 embrace Revolut Financial institution US, Zerohash Nationwide Belief Financial institution, Morgan Stanley Digital Belief, Coinbase Nationwide Belief Firm, and World Liberty Belief Firm, which has ties to the Trump household.
A brand new OCC remaining rule, efficient April 1, 2026, clarifies that nationwide belief banks could interact in operations of a belief firm and actions associated to non-fiduciary digital asset custody on a case-by-case foundation. The rule removes one layer of authorized ambiguity that had slowed institutional adoption.
A federal constitution permits a agency to function nationwide underneath a single regulatory framework, bypassing most state-by-state licensing necessities. For establishments that require regulated custody earlier than allocating to digital belongings, that distinction carries weight.
Just like the others in line, the OCC will evaluate the EDX Belief utility for security and soundness, capital adequacy, and compliance. The appliance consists of a big quantity of confidential displays, together with the marketing strategy and monetary projections, for which EDX has requested FOIA safety.
FAQ 🔎
What’s EDX Markets making use of for? EDX Markets Holding Firm filed an utility with the OCC on March 25, 2026, to constitution EDX Belief, Nationwide Affiliation, as a de novo nationwide belief financial institution in Chicago centered on institutional digital asset custody and settlement. Who backs EDX Markets? Key traders embrace Citadel Securities, Constancy Digital Property, Charles Schwab, Virtu Monetary, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Hudson River Buying and selling. What providers would EDX Belief supply? The proposed financial institution would offer fiduciary custody of digital belongings and stablecoins, asset administration, and settlement providers solely for institutional shoppers through digital channels. Has the OCC authorized the EDX Belief utility? No resolution has been introduced; the OCC listed the applying as pending on March 26, 2026, and can evaluate it for security, soundness, and compliance.
