Fireblocks Lacks Regulatory Charter
Fireblocks
The real risk is that custody can stop being a pure software sale and become a regulated balance sheet sale. Fireblocks wins today by giving banks, exchanges, and fintechs secure wallet infrastructure, policy controls, and a network for moving assets, without becoming the legal custodian itself. If rules push institutions toward qualified custodians or chartered banks, licensed rivals can bundle the same workflows with regulatory status that Fireblocks does not control.
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Anchorage has an OCC national trust bank charter, with capital and liquidity requirements set through its operating agreement. That matters because a charter is not just branding. It gives institutions a cleaner answer to who legally holds assets, who is supervised, and which regulator is in charge.
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Several rivals already pair custody software with charters. Coinbase Prime routes custody through Coinbase Custody Trust Company, a New York limited purpose trust company and qualified custodian. Kraken offers custody through Kraken Financial, a Wyoming-chartered SPDI. Fireblocks instead sells infrastructure that customers layer into their own operating stack.
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That difference cuts both ways. Fireblocks can usually add new chains, tokenization tools, payments rails, and wallet products faster because it is not running a bank. But if regulators or large allocators require chartered custody, the decision can shift from best product to acceptable licensed provider, especially for pensions, RIAs, and banks.
The market is heading toward two layers. One layer is regulated custody wrapped in trust or bank charters. The other is the software that actually moves, signs, and governs assets. Fireblocks is positioning to be the software layer across payments, tokenization, and treasury workflows, but the more custody rules harden, the more value can migrate toward licensed institutions that sit closest to the customer account.