Galaxy Digital has applied to establish a US national trust bank that would bring several of its institutional digital-asset services under federal supervision if regulators approve the proposal. Galaxy Digital LP, a subsidiary of the publicly traded company, submitted its application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Galaxy said on October 29, 2026.
The proposed institution would be called Galaxy National Bank and would be headquartered in New York. It is an application, not an approved charter or an announcement that the bank has begun operating.
What services would Galaxy National Bank provide?
In Galaxy’s original announcement, the company said the national trust bank would provide digital-asset custody, trading and staking services. It would also offer fiduciary investment advisory services under a federal trust framework.
OCC supervision could allow the proposed institution to serve eligible clients across the United States under a single federal charter, rather than relying solely on a patchwork of state-level arrangements. The company’s ability to provide any particular product would still depend on the charter granted and applicable conditions.
A national trust bank is not the same business model as a conventional consumer bank. The announcement does not state that Galaxy plans to accept insured retail deposits or operate an ordinary checking-account network. Readers should not interpret a trust charter application as approval for deposit insurance or for every type of banking activity.
Galaxy builds on existing digital-asset licenses
Galaxy said it already holds more than 50 licenses or regulatory permissions across the US, Europe and Asia. Its existing businesses include SEC-registered broker-dealer subsidiaries that belong to FINRA, a CFTC-registered swap dealer subsidiary and an FCA-authorized operation in the UK.
The company also said New York’s financial regulator recently granted a subsidiary a BitLicense and a money transmission license to provide institutional trading and custody services in the state.
Those approvals form the backdrop to the new request but do not predetermine the OCC’s decision. The national trust charter would represent a separate federal layer of oversight with its own capital, governance, risk management and compliance obligations.
What happens before a charter is approved?
The OCC must review the application and determine whether the proposed institution meets relevant legal and supervisory standards. Galaxy has not provided a confirmed date for an approval decision or a commercial launch. Regulators could request changes, impose conditions, delay their review or decline the application.
Galaxy founder and chief executive Mike Novogratz described a national trust charter as a possible next step in the company’s institutional service strategy. That is management’s assessment of the opportunity, not a regulator’s finding that the application will succeed.
The proposed model reflects a wider push to connect digital-asset custody and markets with formal financial oversight. BlockBriefing also reported on Ripple’s trust-bank regulatory developments; the two companies’ applications and regulatory statuses should be evaluated independently.
Primary source: Galaxy Digital company announcement, October 29, 2026. The bank has not been chartered as of the announcement.
