OCC: Banks Can Buy and Sell Their Customers' Crypto Assets Held in Custody

1 month ago

A caller argumentation directive from the U.S. regulator of nationalist banks says the institutions tin besides outsource crypto custody and execution to extracurricular parties.

May 7, 2025, 9:31 p.m.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationalist banks, has continued its about-face to earlier absorption to cryptocurrency successful banking, issuing interpretive letters that accidental the institutions tin — astatine their customers' behest — bargain and merchantability crypto assets successful custody.

The newly explained argumentation stance released by the OCC connected Wednesday besides clarified that the bankers tin outsource crypto activities to 3rd parties, including custody and enforcement services. As agelong arsenic it each inactive checks the boxes of the watchdog's safety-and-soundness requirements, the OCC is giving the banks much crypto freedom.

This week's determination follows the agency's March reversal of a longstanding argumentation that demanded bankers cheque with their authorities supervisors earlier moving up with caller crypto business. "These letters awesome a displacement successful the OCC's approach," Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, Starkware wide counsel and a erstwhile main ineligible serviceman astatine Cboe Digital, noted connected societal media tract X. She said the bureau present seems to beryllium melding crypto into accepted banking. And the further guidance that third-parties are good "is a boon to regulated crypto autochthonal work providers."

Jesse Hamilton

Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's lawman managing exertion connected the Global Policy and Regulation team, based successful Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk successful 2022, helium worked for much than a decennary covering Wall Street regularisation astatine Bloomberg News and Businessweek, penning astir the aboriginal whisperings among national agencies trying to determine what to bash astir crypto. He’s won respective nationalist honors successful his reporting career, including from his clip arsenic a warfare analogous successful Iraq and arsenic a constabulary newsman for newspapers. Jesse is simply a postgraduate of Western Washington University, wherever helium studied journalism and history. He has nary crypto holdings.