Nubank has cleared a significant regulatory hurdle in the United States, securing conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a national bank. The decision paves the way for the fintech to build a U.S.-based bank platform capable of handling deposits, lending, credit cards and digital asset custody. While the OCC grant marks a milestone, Nubank must advance through the bank organization phase, meeting capitalization requirements and obtaining further approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve before any U.S. banking operations commence. The company’s leadership has outlined a pragmatic timeline, aiming to fully capitalize and launch within 18 months, contingent on regulatory sign-off.
In a formal announcement, Nubank confirmed that the bank would be led by co-founder Cristina Junqueira, with Roberto Campos Neto, the former president of Brazil’s Central Bank, serving as board chair. The plan underscores Nubank’s broader ambition to blend traditional banking services with digital asset products, a strategy it has pursued across Latin America since its inception. Nubank, which serves more than 127 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, has grown from a fintech start-up founded in 2013 to a major publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021. This U.S. charter move signals an acceleration of its cross-border banking and crypto initiatives, framed against a regulatory landscape that has shown increasing openness to nontraditional financial players seeking fully licensed access to the U.S. banking system.
The bank charter push sits within Nubank’s evolving stance on digital assets. In 2022, the company ventured into crypto by partnering with Paxos to enable customers to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies directly within its app, alongside a plan to allocate about 1% of its net assets to Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). The expansion continued in 2023 when Nubank broadened its crypto offerings in Brazil to include Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA), Near Protocol (CRYPTO: NEAR), Cosmos (CRYPTO: ATOM) and Algorand (CRYPTO: ALGO), bringing the total number of supported tokens to 20. This diversification positioned Nubank as one of the region’s more proactive fintechs in linking digital assets with traditional financial services.
Recent regulatory milestones further illustrate a broader trend. Earlier in the year, Circle and Ripple Labs received conditional OCC approval to establish US national trust banks, reflecting the agency’s evolving stance on integrating digital-assets infrastructure within federally chartered banking. The OCC also approved the conversions of BitGo Bank & Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos Trust Company into national trust banks, signaling a broader consolidation of crypto-friendly operations under national-bank charters. In a related development, Revolut announced on Jan. 23 that it plans to apply for a US banking license as part of its global expansion, a move that would place the London-based fintech in closer proximity to U.S. customers and the broader crypto ecosystem.
These parallel moves highlight a shifting cost/benefit equilibrium for fintechs and crypto firms seeking regulated, capital-formed pathways into the United States. Nubank’s strategy aligns with a wave of financial technology groups pursuing full banking charters to bolster trust, access funding markets, and expand product curricula that couple traditional financial services with digital assets. The underlying market dynamic is one of increased regulatory clarity and a push toward institutional-grade infrastructure that can support deposits, lending, cards and crypto custody under a single corporate umbrella. Nubank’s public listing, coupled with its expansive user base across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, positions the firm to leverage a U.S. charter as a means to unify regional operations with a transatlantic banking framework.
Nubank’s crypto trajectory has already contributed to a broader narrative in which digital assets are increasingly embedded in mainstream financial services. The company’s original crypto entry in 2022 was followed by a steady expansion of token coverage and product integration, underscoring a conviction that digital assets can sit alongside conventional banking services rather than exist in a separate, siloed ecosystem. The potential U.S. national bank charter could enable Nubank to offer a more seamless experience for customers who want to hold fiat and crypto in one place, alongside regulated credit facilities and card-based payment rails. It also raises questions about monetization, risk management, and how Nubank will manage liquidity and collateral in a U.S. regulatory environment with novel supervisory requirements.
As with other fintechs pursuing national bank status, Nubank will need to demonstrate robust capitalization, governance, and risk controls. The path to launch involves synchronized approvals from multiple regulators, with the FDIC and the Federal Reserve expected to weigh in after the OCC’s conditional green light. The company has indicated that it plans to complete the capitalization process and obtain necessary clearances within an 18-month window, a timeline that could extend depending on the pace of supervisory scrutiny and the readiness of US-based operations. The regulatory process will test Nubank’s ability to integrate its fintech DNA with the stringent standards of U.S. banking oversight, particularly as it expands into digital asset custody, custodianship and potentially crypto-backed lending.
Beyond Nubank’s immediate regulatory journey, the broader picture suggests a growing appetite among innovative financial players to anchor crypto services within licensed, insured banking frameworks. The OCC’s active role in endorsing national banks that handle digital assets signals a regulatory willingness to provide stable, supervised pathways for crypto-market participants seeking mainstream access. For investors and users, the development could translate into enhanced security, improved product breadth, and a more familiar, regulated interface for buying, selling and storing digital assets. Yet it also raises considerations about capital requirements, consumer protections, and the interplay between crypto markets and traditional banking, as institutions navigate liquidity management and exposure to volatile asset classes within a regulated charter.
Market observers will watch closely how Nubank negotiates the intersection of consumer banking, cross-border operations and crypto custody under U.S. regulatory supervision. The bank charter trajectory may also influence the tempo at which Nubank and similar outfits expand their crypto offerings in the region, potentially accelerating product roadmaps and partnerships that leverage the benefits of a federally chartered institution. As the sector continues to evolve, the line between fintech innovation and regulated banking is becoming increasingly blurred, with consumer choice, security and transparency often cited as the central pillars guiding decisions about where and how digital assets fit into everyday financial services.
For Nubank, the U.S. national bank effort represents a strategic extension of a growth engine that has already transformed consumer finance in Latin America. If the company can meet capitalization and supervisory expectations while navigating FDIC and Federal Reserve scrutiny, the U.S. platform could become a cornerstone for a broader, cross-border ecosystem that roams from currency exchanges to credit facilities—and eventually to crypto custody and investment services that are fully integrated within a regulated banking framework.
Market context: The U.S. banking landscape is increasingly populated by fintechs and crypto-native firms pursuing regulated access, a trend that could reshape liquidity channels and consumer onboarding for digital assets. As regulatory clarity advances, these banks may facilitate more scalable and secure ways for users to interact with crypto, potentially influencing adoption cycles, asset flows, and risk management practices across the sector.
Why it matters
The conditional OCC approval marks more than a milestone for Nubank; it illustrates the shifting ground under which fintechs seek to combine traditional financial services with digital assets within a single banking license. For Nubank’s 127 million customers across Latin America, the U.S. charter could unlock a consistent experience for deposits, lending and crypto custody, with the added benefit of the FDIC insurance framework and Federal Reserve oversight that many users associate with greater stability and trust. The move also signals a broader regulatory appetite to map digital-asset offerings into conventional banking rails, offering a potential blueprint for other non-U.S. players that aim to scale in the American market while maintaining strong governance and compliance standards.
From an industry perspective, the expansion reflects a maturing market where major fintechs are moving beyond app-based payments to a more integrated financial services stack. The ability to offer crypto custody within a regulated bank could reduce counterparty and settlement risk, improve customer protections and foster more transparent priority for risk controls and capital planning. In parallel, it may spur more collaborations between fintechs, traditional banks and asset-security providers, creating avenues for innovation in digital asset custody, liquidity management and cross-border settlement that align with existing financial infrastructures.
However, the path to launch remains contingent on meeting capitalization thresholds and obtaining FDIC and Fed approvals, underscoring the regulatory dimensions that accompany such ambitious expansions. As Nubank progresses, observers will monitor not only the bank’s readiness but also how its crypto strategy evolves under U.S. supervision, including the scope of assets supported, customer protections, and the integration of crypto-related products with core banking services.
What to watch next
- Completion of the capital adequacy process and regulatory approvals from the FDIC and Federal Reserve within the 18-month window.
- Progress updates from Nubank on product integration, including deposits, lending and crypto custody capabilities in the U.S.
- Further regulatory announcements related to other national banks and crypto-focused charters, including the status of Circle, Ripple and others’ national trust banks.
- Updates on Nubank’s crypto product roadmap in the U.S., including potential stablecoins and card-linked crypto payments.
Sources & verification
- Nubank confirms conditional OCC approval to establish a U.S. national bank and outlines leadership and timeline. https://international.nubank.com.br/company/nu-secures-approval-to-establish-us-national-bank/
- OCC regulatory actions on crypto-friendly banks and national trust bank conversions. https://occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-125.html
- Cointelegraph coverage on Nubank’s crypto expansion and asset allocation plans referenced in the article. https://cointelegraph.com/news/latin-america-s-largest-digital-bank-will-allocate-1-to-btc-offer-crypto-investment-services
- Revolut’s plan to seek a U.S. banking license as part of its global expansion. https://cointelegraph.com/news/revolut-us-banking-license-global-expansion
