Wyoming approves Kraken's SPDI bank charter
Wyoming approved Kraken's application for a Special Purpose Depository Institution, creating Kraken Bank as a state-chartered bank focused on digital assets.
On September 16, Wyoming approved Kraken's SPDI charter. The structure was designed to combine conventional banking powers with custody and fiduciary services for digital assets while operating under a state bank charter.
Kraken described the institution as the first digital-asset company in the United States to receive this type of bank charter. The model gave a crypto-native exchange a route into the regulated banking system rather than relying entirely on third-party banking partners.
For Bitcoin, the charter mattered because banking, custody and settlement had long been points of friction between exchanges and traditional finance. Wyoming's SPDI framework offered a purpose-built legal bridge.
Wyoming’s SPDI framework was designed for institutions that custody assets while maintaining full reserves rather than lending deposits in the conventional fractional-reserve model. Kraken’s charter therefore connected crypto custody and payment services to a state-chartered banking structure, an unusual bridge between Bitcoin businesses and the U.S. banking system.