Boston-based payments firm and crypto unicorn Circle is seeking a federal banking license, according to multiple media reports.

The goal of the license would be to provide more services to customers and to register as a brokerage and trading platform with the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to help investors purchase and sell tokens that are considered securities.

Circle officials told Bloomberg in an interview that they have had preliminary conversations with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as well as with officials at the SEC.

A federal bank charter would subject Circle to tighter regulation, but would also allow the company to potentially avoid having to deal with a number of different state regulations in the future. A charter could also allow Circle to hold customer assets in the form of digital coins or government-issued currencies such as U.S. dollars.

“The regulators need to figure this out because eventually other banks that they regulate are going to want to hold crypto,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told Bloomberg. “We can be a great guinea pig.”

Circle allows people to essentially text each other money with no fees and no borders. The company also serves institutions and investors as one of the world’s largest providers of crypto asset liquidity and is developing an invest app that will enable individuals to tap into crypto asset investment.

The company has had no shortage of news to share this year.

In February, Circle purchased the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, one of the world’s leading token marketplaces available in over 100 countries. It was the first exchange to reach $1 billion in daily volume, one of the first exchanges in the world to offer meaningful liquidity in Ethereum and it has has hosted a broad variety of carefully selected tokens.

About a month later, the firm hired Naeem Ishaq as Circle’s new CFO, treasurer and executive vice president of risk. At the same time, the company said it would grow its work force from around 150 to around 400 employees by the end of the year.

Most recently, Circle raised another round of funding, a $110 million series E round, led by a new partnership with Bitmain, a bitcoin mining company.

In addition to Bitmain, the funding round included existing investors IDG Capital, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Digital Currency Group and Pantera, along with new investors Blockchain Capital and Tusk Ventures. Goldman Sachs is also an investor in the company.