As reported by Fixygen, the border between traditional banks and is quickly being erased by the crypto industry. In March 2026, Kraken Financial received a master account from the Federal Reserve System, becoming the first digital bank with direct access to the US payment infrastructure.
Kraken already operates as a special bank in the state of Wyoming and at the same time has more than 100 active regulatory approvals in more than 30 countries.
On the other hand, traditional banks are considering issuing their own stablecoins and tokenized deposits. JPMorgan is studying the possibility of issuing a stablecoin, similar projects are being discussed by Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other banks.
Even crypto companies are starting to receive federal banking licenses: in August, the American OCC granted preliminary permission to World Liberty Financial to create a national trust bank to work with stablecoins and store assets.
As a result, in a few years, the difference between a "bank" and a "cryptoexchange" may already be defined not a set of services.
Both parties seek to provide services for asset storage, payments, stable cryptocurrencies, trading, tokenized securities, credit products and international settlements.
The main fight will revolve around who will keep the client within their own financial infrastructure - JPMorgan, Coinbase, Kraken or new digital banks.
