Coinbase secured a federal trust charter with the help of the CLARITY Act. Yesterday, the OCC conditionally approved Coinbase to establish a national trust company. This license is considered the 'Holy Grail' in the industry. It’s said that thousands of institutions have applied for it, but most didn’t make it through the process. Now Coinbase is killing it—they got it. The timing, though, is pretty interesting. The CLARITY Act has been stuck in the Senate for months, and the biggest controversy has always been about paying interest on stablecoins. Coinbase has spent $25 million lobbying in Washington over time, and Brian Armstrong personally stepped in to shake things up. And then, the license came through. Of course, no one explicitly said this was a trade-off. But politics, you know how it works. Regulators need a big player to help set the rules. Coinbase needs a federal-level financial identity. With this license, Coinbase is no longer just an exchange— it’s now a licensed federal financial infrastructure. A win-win.