Crypto Custodian Protego Secures National Bank Charter From U.S. OCC, the Second After Anchorage

The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has recently approved a new banking license for crypto custodian Pretego. This license upgrades Protego from a Washington State-chartered trust company to a nationally chartered trust bank. The Protego Trust Bank aims to offer digital assets services like hold, trade, lend and issue digital assets, to institutional clients all across America.

After Anchorage, Protego is only the second crypto custodian to get a national banking charter from the U.S. OCC. The OCC granted crypto custodian the first national banking charter license last month in January 2021. The official press release notes that the Protego Trust Bank will be “vertically integrated” and a fully regulated blockchain-based bank.

Protego will offer four major kinds of services to its customers including custodial solutions, crypto trading solutions, borrow and lending facilities, as well as insurance for the digital assets. Weiyee In, Protego’s Chief Information and Data Governance Officer said:

“Our core banking, data governance, risk management and reporting technology stack has been architected to exacting institutional standards. It provides a high degree of interoperability with our clients’ existing systems by bridging existing financial services and market structure technology platforms globally into the digital future.”

Offering Cryptocurrency Services to Institutional Clients

Federally regulated crypto banks are likely to get more traction as institutional players enter this space. For long institutions have been seeking services that suit their needs and the crypto companies have started building ecosystems around it. Protego’s head of business development Chris Hunter they have already secured institutional commitment to secure $1.5 billion of crypto custodial assets. He added:

“The demand from institutional investors for secure and compliant access to digital assets – led by Bitcoin – is growing everyday. I think that’s one reason why we have already secured commitments for more than $1.5 billion in AUC at launch.”

As said more crypto companies have joined the bandwagon to seek regulatory approval in offering institutional crypto services. Cryptocurrency peer-to-peer payments startup Metal Pay has also applied for a banking charter with the OCC earlier this week on February 3.

Recently, the crypto-friendly Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks resigned after the term end of the Trump administration. A new person shall soon take charge.