EDX Markets Holding Company Files OCC Charter Application for Crypto Trust Bank

The application was made public on Wednesday, April 1, and first reported on by Bloomberg. It requests full fiduciary powers under 12 U.S.C. § 92a and authorization to provide digital asset custody, asset management, and settlement services exclusively for institutional clients. The proposed main office is located at 200 W. Madison, Suite 1450, Chicago, IL 60606.

EDX Markets launched in June 2023 as an institutional-only cryptocurrency exchange. Its founding backers include Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Virtu Financial, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Hudson River Trading, and Miami International Holdings.

The platform operates on a non-custodial model, meaning it does not hold client assets during trading, a structure that mirrors how traditional finance (TradFi) firms separate custody from execution. The proposed trust bank would not change that separation. EDX Trust would handle custody, asset management, and settlement. Order matching and trading would remain with its affiliate, EDX Markets LLC.

If approved, EDX Trust would offer fiduciary custody of digital assets, cash, and stablecoins, using sub-custodian banks to manage private keys and reduce single points of failure. The bank would also manage custodied cash and stablecoins by investing them in highly liquid assets, targeting returns near the federal funds rate, along with permissible staking and yield-generating activity.

Settlement services would include riskless principal trading and end-of-day net settlement for clients operating on the EDX Markets platform or in over-the-counter (OTC) venues. The bank would not conduct proprietary trading.

The proposed board includes five members, among them independents with banking and risk backgrounds from First Business Financial, UBS, and Charles Schwab. Management draws from executives who have worked at Cboe Digital, the Options Clearing Corporation, Coinbase, and Kraken.

CEO José Antonio Acuña-Rohter, who previously led ErisX and Cboe Digital, is heading the effort. The bank would have no physical branches and no retail services. All operations would run electronically through APIs and a graphical interface.

The OCC added the application to its public list of pending digital asset licensing applications on March 26. No decision timeline has been announced.

The filing joins a growing list of crypto and fintech firms seeking national trust bank charters since late 2025. In December 2025, the OCC granted conditional approvals to five crypto-related institutions, including de novo charters for Ripple National Trust Bank and First National Digital Currency Bank, along with conversions for Bitgo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. Early 2026 saw additional approvals for Crypto.com and Stripe’s Bridge unit.

Pending applications as of April 1 include Revolut Bank US, Zerohash National Trust Bank, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, Coinbase National Trust Company, and World Liberty Trust Company, which has ties to the Trump family.

A new OCC final rule, effective April 1, 2026, clarifies that national trust banks may engage in operations of a trust company and activities related to non-fiduciary digital asset custody on a case-by-case basis. The rule removes one layer of legal ambiguity that had slowed institutional adoption.

A federal charter allows a firm to operate nationwide under a single regulatory framework, bypassing most state-by-state licensing requirements. For institutions that require regulated custody before allocating to digital assets, that distinction carries weight.

Like the others in line, the OCC will review the EDX Trust application for safety and soundness, capital adequacy, and compliance. The application includes a large volume of confidential exhibits, including the business plan and financial projections, for which EDX has requested FOIA protection.

FAQ 🔎

• What is EDX Markets applying for? EDX Markets Holding Company filed an application with the OCC on March 25, 2026, to charter EDX Trust, National Association, as a de novo national trust bank in Chicago focused on institutional digital asset custody and settlement.
• Who backs EDX Markets? Key investors include Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Virtu Financial, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Hudson River Trading.
• What services would EDX Trust offer? The proposed bank would provide fiduciary custody of digital assets and stablecoins, asset management, and settlement services exclusively for institutional clients via electronic channels.
• Has the OCC approved the EDX Trust application? No decision has been announced; the OCC listed the application as pending on March 26, 2026, and will review it for safety, soundness, and compliance.

Google researchers have sounded the alarm over the growing threat that future quantum computers pose to the security systems protecting Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies, saying that the crypto industry needs to start preparing now. In a blog post and accompanying white paper published this week, Google’s research team warned that the computing power required to break the encryption safeguarding crypto wallets and transactions may be significantly lower than experts had previously believed. Google, however, clarified that while no such machine is capable of doing this exists today, the threat is real as future quantum computers may.“Google has led the responsible transition to post-quantum cryptography since 2016. In a new whitepaper, we show that future quantum computers may break the elliptic curve cryptography that protects cryptocurrency and other systems with fewer qubits and gates than previously realized. We want to raise awareness on this issue and are providing the cryptocurrency community with recommendations to improve security and stability before this is possible, including transitioning blockchains to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), which is resistant to quantum attacks,” the company said in a blog post.

What exactly is the risk

At the heart of the concern is a type of encryption called elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC), which is considered to be the mathematical backbone used to secure most crypto transactions. According to Google’s latest research, a future quantum computer could crack a key part of this system, known as ECDLP-256, using roughly 20 times less hardware than earlier estimates had assumed.Consider ECC as a digital lock that is so powerful that it needs much resources to crack it open. Quantum Computing offers a way to crack things that are not been possible with the current systems, like accelerating drug discovery, advancing material science (batteries). Similarly, quantum computers can provide an easy way to break crypto security with lower resources than previously thought.

What it means for crypto holders

Should crypto holders panic? Not yet but Google says they should pay attention. Google is clear that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not suddenly vulnerable, and the researchers framed their paper as a warning, giving the industry time to respond. Still, the researchers struck a cautious tone, noting that the window to act is “increasingly narrow” and that the pace of technological progress means developers, exchanges, and wallet providers need to move faster.Google is also pointing to a newer form of security called post-quantum cryptography (PQC) – encryption systems specifically designed to hold up against the power of quantum machines.“We urge all vulnerable cryptocurrency communities to join the migration to PQC without delay,” the researchers wrote. They also added the the US government has also been apprised of this.“To share this research responsibly, we engaged with the U.S. government and developed a new method to describe these vulnerabilities via a zero-knowledge proof, so they can be verified without providing a roadmap for bad actors. We urge other research teams to do the same to keep people safe. We look forward to continuing our work across the industry following our 2029 timeline alongside others working on responsible approaches, like Coinbase, the Stanford Institute for Blockchain Research, and the Ethereum Foundation,” Google added.

Mercado Coin Is Being Discontinued

The company notified users through the Mercado Pago digital wallet app and email. No public statement was issued. Mercado Libre introduced mercado coin in August 2022, starting in Brazil. The token was built as an ERC-20 asset on the Ethereum blockchain in partnership with crypto exchange Ripio and initially priced at roughly $0.10 per token.

Users earned it as cashback on purchases through Mercado Libre’s marketplace and could either spend mercado coin on the platform or cash it out. The intent was to bring everyday shoppers into the crypto space through a low-friction loyalty mechanism, no need to trade bitcoin or manage volatile assets. In practice, the token stayed inside the Mercado Libre ecosystem and never built meaningful traction elsewhere.

Starting April 17, users can no longer buy, sell, or earn mercado coin through the platform. Holders have three options before the deadline: sell tokens through the Mercado Pago app, spend the balance on Mercado Libre purchases, or do nothing. Any remaining balance after April 17 will be automatically converted to local fiat currency, Brazilian reais for most users, and deposited into their Mercado Pago account.

Mercado Libre gave no explanation in its user notifications for ending the program. The decision fits a pattern seen across large tech and e-commerce companies that built branded tokens during the 2021–2022 crypto expansion cycle. Many are stepping back from proprietary digital assets while keeping or expanding exposure to more established infrastructure like stablecoins and direct crypto trading.

Mercado Libre is not stepping away from crypto entirely. The company continues to offer crypto buying and selling, stablecoin transfers, and other digital asset services through Mercado Pago. It also launched its own dollar-backed stablecoin.

On the treasury side, Mercado Libre holds more than $38 million in bitcoin. The company first disclosed a $7.8 million BTC purchase in 2021 and held 570.4 BTC as of 2025 disclosures. For the roughly 2 million users who held mercado coin at various points, the shutdown carries little practical disruption.

The token had no active secondary market and no meaningful external liquidity. The auto-conversion safety net means holders do not need to take action to recover value. The shutdown reflects a clearer strategic direction for Mercado Libre’s fintech arm: move away from proprietary engagement tokens and focus on payment rails, stablecoins, and crypto custody that serve users across Latin America at scale.

Mercado Pago processes payments for hundreds of millions of users across the region. The company’s decision to retire a niche loyalty token while keeping broader crypto services active suggests the experiment was always peripheral to its core fintech build-out.

Mercado coin’s shutdown closes a chapter on one of Latin America’s more prominent corporate crypto loyalty programs, one that launched with regional ambitions but ended quietly with an auto-convert notice in a wallet app.

FAQ 🔎

• What is mercado coin? Mercado coin was an ERC-20 loyalty token launched by Mercado Libre in Brazil in August 2022 that let users earn cashback on purchases through the Mercado Libre marketplace.
• When does mercado coin shut down? Mercado coin will no longer be available to buy, sell, or earn starting April 17, 2026.
• What happens to remaining mercado coin balances after the shutdown? Any mercado coin balance not spent or sold by April 17, 2026 will be automatically converted to local fiat currency and deposited into the user’s Mercado Pago account.
• Is Mercado Libre leaving the crypto market? No — Mercado Libre continues to offer crypto trading, stablecoin services, and holds over $38 million in bitcoin on its balance sheet.