Zerohash’s OCC Trust Bank Charter Application Returned, Refiling Planned

Zerohash, a digital-asset infrastructure provider to traditional financial firms including Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade, has failed to obtain a US federal trust bank charter.

CoinDesk reported on August 12 that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency returned Zerohash’s trust bank charter application on July 17. The OCC can return an application without formally denying it if the filing is deemed “substantially incomplete.” In such cases, the agency does not disclose specific reasons.

Zerohash said the action was “an administrative process carried out in consultation with the OCC,” rather than a judgment on the substance of the application. The company said it plans to reapply later this month. It added that the next application will take a “phased approach” with a narrower scope than originally planned.

Zerohash first applied to the OCC for a trust bank charter in March. The application covered “broad digital asset and custody services,” and that wide scope may have contributed to the filing being returned. The OCC has recently granted conditional crypto trust bank charters to several companies, including Circle, Ripple, Paxos Trust, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets.

Separately, Zerohash is facing an internal legal dispute. Former Chief Compliance Officer Edgar Guerra alleged in a lawsuit filed in a California court that he was fired after identifying more than 200 serious compliance violations. Zerohash sought to move the case to arbitration, but the court tentatively rejected the request.

Zerohash provides crypto infrastructure to BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Stripe, Interactive Brokers and DraftKings, and already holds a state-level trust bank charter. CoinDesk reported in May that the company was seeking fresh funding at a valuation of more than $1.5 billion.