SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) has become the first nationally chartered bank in the United States to launch crypto services for retail customers.
The company’s new SoFi Crypto platform allows members to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC) directly within their bank accounts. The rollout begins Tuesday, with phased access expanding to all of SoFi’s 12.6 million customers by the end of 2025.
“Today marks a pivotal moment when banking meets crypto in one app,” said CEO Anthony Noto. “It’s critical to give our members a secure and regulated way to step into the future of money.”
Customers can also purchase Ethereum and Solana, with more crypto rolling out in the future.
A regulatory green light for SoFi
The launch follows a dramatic reversal in U.S. banking policy. After years of regulatory hesitation under the Biden administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) clarified earlier this year that nationally chartered banks can offer crypto custody, trading, and settlement services.
“We’ve wanted to be a one stop shop for all your financial services needs, and one of the holes we’ve had for the last 2 years was in cryptocurrency,” Noto said on CNBC this morning. ”The ability to buy, sell, and hold crypto, we were not allowed to do that as a bank, it was not permissible”
That change — part of a broader deregulatory wave under President Trump — has sparked a new phase of institutional adoption.
In May, the OCC’s interpretive letter gave banks the legal clarity needed to handle crypto directly rather than through third-party intermediaries.
“SoFi went from not being able to offer crypto products as a bank to having the best license a company can have to deliver them,” Noto said per Reuters.
Crypto confidence at a “bank level”
Unlike fintech platforms or exchanges, SoFi operates under a full national bank charter — meaning its crypto services are subject to the same oversight and capital requirements as its checking, savings, and lending products.
That distinction could prove crucial. The bank says 60% of its members who already own crypto prefer trading through a licensed bank rather than a traditional exchange.
Funds used for crypto purchases will flow directly from FDIC-insured SoFi checking and savings accounts, where deposits earn up to $2 million in coverage. “When you’re not putting cash to work,” Noto said, “it’s sitting in an insured account that earns interest — not idle on an exchange.”
SoFi’s blockchain and crypto roadmap
The bank’s ambitions go beyond buying and selling crypto. SoFi is developing a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin and exploring crypto-integrated lending and payment products, part of what it calls a “full blockchain strategy” to modernize financial infrastructure.
With major lenders like Charles Schwab and PNC reportedly preparing similar rollouts, SoFi’s move could accelerate the normalization of crypto inside the U.S. banking system.
Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/sofi-makes-history-customers-buy-bitcoin
