Authored by Ezra Reguerra via Cointelegraph,
Jack Dorsey's payments company Block seeks to establish a federally regulated trust bank to provide custody services for Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Block said Tuesday it had submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank.
If approved, the bank would operate under OCC supervision and offer custody and related fiduciary services.
Block said the charter would give its custody operations a consistent national framework as the business expands.
The proposed bank would not accept deposits or make loans, separating it from a conventional commercial bank.
Lee Woolley, Block's digital asset strategy lead, would serve as Builders Bank's president and CEO.
Woolley said the proposed institution would draw on Block's digital asset operations and its experience with Square Financial Services, the company's existing industrial bank.
Block joins a growing list of financial technology and crypto companies pursuing national trust bank charters.
Ripple has received conditional approval for a similar charter, while Circle and BitGo have received final approval.
Kraken parent Payward and crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash have also submitted applications.
[ZH: We would imagine these firms are in a hurry to get these approved before the Midterms.]
Tyler Durden Wed, 09/09/2026 - 18:25A newly appointed Russian government official has exploded across social media after users seized on a press-conference photograph and began joking that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have a difficult time pushing a man of his size out of a window, according to the Daily Star.
🍖🍔🍩 “Russia and Armenia are like one big family — sometimes things go differently,” said Rossotrudnichestvo chief Igor Chaika
There’s an old saying: “In a big family, if you’re too slow, you miss out on dinner.” Chaika clearly wasn’t too slow — he seems to have eaten Armenia for dinner himself. Peter Griffin, is that you????!!!!
Igor Chaika, who now leads Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia's federal agency for foreign aid and cultural exchange, sparked widespread mockery and memes when images from a briefing on Moscow's strained relationship with Armenia began circulating online.
In the photos - many which were digitally altered - Chaika is seen standing behind a row of microphones representing state-linked outlets as he addresses reporters on the deteriorating ties between the two countries.
Social media compared the imposing official to Marvel's Kingpin, and one widely circulated post captured the tone of the moment by suggesting the Kremlin would struggle to remove this particular figure in the way that has become grimly familiar in Russian politics.
Didn't realize we were getting a comic accurate Fisk/Kingpin in Avengers: Doomsday
— Alex Hillman (@alexhillman) September 8, 2026Good luck to Putin managing to push this official out of a window.
— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) September 8, 2026Russian officials have biologically evolved to be harder to push out of windows.
— Zoska (@TotallyNotZoska) September 8, 2026Uncanny...
— WarMonitor (@WarMonitor3) September 8, 2026https://x.com/europemaxxed/status/2097599894806581503?s=20
— @europemaxxed September 9, 2026https://x.com/pronouncedsimon/status/2097426283328156048?s=20
— @pronouncedsimon September 8, 2026Chaika, a prominent businessman and the son of former Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, was appointed to the post in April 2026. At the conference he dismissed rumors of a complete break with Armenia, describing the relationship as that of a large family while announcing agreements to expand Russia's cultural centers, known as Russian Houses, across the region.
Maybe a music career is also in the cards?
Tyler Durden Wed, 09/09/2026 - 18:00