Galaxy Digital Applies for a National Trust Bank Charter 27…

Galaxy Digital said on Thursday morning that its subsidiary Galaxy Digital LP has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Galaxy National Bank, a proposed national trust bank headquartered in New York. If approved, it would bring custody, trading, staking and fiduciary investment advisory services under one federal supervisor.

The application arrives into live litigation, because on 2 October the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC over its authority to grant exactly this kind of charter. Galaxy Digital lists that challenge among its own risk factors without naming the case.

Galaxy Digital Would Fold Custody, Trading and Staking Into One Charter

“A national trust charter would be an important next step, allowing us to bring more of our services under a single federal framework and expand how we serve clients as adoption accelerates,” said founder and chief executive Mike Novogratz. The bank would serve clients nationally rather than state by state.

Galaxy Digital holds more than 50 licenses across the United States, Europe and Asia, including SEC-registered broker-dealer subsidiaries that are FINRA members, a CFTC-registered swap dealer subsidiary and a UK subsidiary authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority. The New York State Department of Financial Services recently granted a subsidiary a BitLicense and a Money Transmission License covering institutional trading and custody in the state. A national charter would sit above that patchwork rather than replace it.

A Community Bank Trade Group Sued the OCC Over These Charters on 2 October

The Independent Community Bankers of America filed Independent Community Bankers of America v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, naming the agency and Comptroller Jonathan Gould. Its argument is that the National Bank Act allows three categories of national bank, depository banks, bankers’ banks and fiduciary national trust banks, and that the OCC has invented a fourth for non-depository crypto firms.

ICBA asks the court to vacate the OCC’s March 2026 final rule and Interpretive Letter 1176, to vacate Protego Holdings’ conditional approval, and to bar the agency from using the rule to grant or conditionally approve further charters. That last request would reach Galaxy Digital directly. The OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 national trust charters under the current administration, at least 13 of them for crypto companies. The Bank Policy Institute has separately argued that applicants are “not planning to operate genuine trust companies” and that lighter treatment could blur what it means to be a bank.

Investor Takeaway

Ripple Waited Nearly a Year From Conditional Approval to a Working Charter

The OCC conditionally approved five crypto firms on 12 December 2025, and a conditional approval permits building a bank rather than holding client assets. Conditions typically include raising tier one capital, passing a preopening examination and opening within 18 months. Paxos shows what happens when that clock runs out, with its 2021 preliminary approval lapsing in March 2023 before the firm reapplied.

Of that December group, BitGo Bank and Trust reached full approval in about seven weeks, Circle National Trust took roughly seven months, and Ripple National Trust Bank received its final authorization on 26 October, nearly a year later and three days before Galaxy Digital filed. Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets were still conditional in late August. Anchorage Digital, the one crypto firm chartered before that wave, now issues Tether’s federally regulated USAT stablecoin, which is what a working charter eventually buys.

The Application Lands After an 11% Post-Earnings Rally

Galaxy Digital reported third-quarter net income of $323 million on Tuesday, against an $85 million loss in the second quarter, with adjusted EBITDA of $455 million and total assets up 51% to $16.4 billion. Assets under management and under stake rose 46% to $10.4 billion, and the company signed a multi-year agreement with BNY covering institutional digital asset infrastructure. GLXY closed Wednesday at $19.09, up 11.12%, extending a five-day gain of 25.26%, and traded at $18.17 in Thursday pre-market dealing, down 4.82%.

That recovery only reaches so far, and Galaxy Digital remains 20.34% lower over one month and 48.20% over twelve, at a market value of $7.46 billion with 700 staff. Analysts have split on it, with Canaccord Genuity holding a $50 target on Wednesday while H.C. Wainwright cut to $36 from $40 and kept its buy rating. The data center half is the variable both are weighing.

Helios I Phase I delivered 133 megawatts of critical IT load to CoreWeave, which Galaxy identifies as its largest data center client, in a sector carrying heavy debt against contracted backlogs and facing Musk’s warning that more than 200 AI cloud firms will consolidate. A federal trust charter would widen the revenue base away from that exposure. Galaxy’s research arm separately called the bitcoin bear market over earlier this week.

Investor Takeaway