The US Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC warn banks that issuing or holding crypto “is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices”
Regulators say holding cryptocurrencies is likely inconsistent with safe banking practices — Crypto's Crash Has Been Swift but Largely Self-Contained.
Wall Street JournalPaul Kiernan
Context & Ripple Effects
The warning came as US regulators were still catching up with DeFi startups and crypto-backed lenders, a period captured in the earlier push to supervise crypto lenders. It put the banking system—not only crypto firms—at the center of the supervisory response.
The immediate chill was visible weeks later, when banks were reported to be reassessing even small crypto exposures. The later reversal by the OCC, FDIC, and Federal Reserve toward risk-managed participation makes this warning an important marker of how sharply bank-crypto policy has shifted.
First-order effects
Banks that issue or hold crypto face a clear supervisory signal that those activities may conflict with safe-and-sound banking expectations, raising the compliance burden on existing exposure.
Crypto firms seeking bank balance-sheet support or custody relationships encounter a more restrictive posture from the three principal federal banking agencies.
Second-order effects
Banks have an incentive to reduce or reprice relationships with crypto businesses as they reassess exposure, reinforcing the pullback reported in banks' retreat from crypto clients.
The warning differentiates bank-based crypto services from activities outside federally supervised banks, concentrating near-term access to banking channels among firms able to meet heightened risk expectations.
Third-order effects
The subsequent OCC rescission of prior crypto guidance and parallel FDIC and Federal Reserve changes show that bank access to crypto is increasingly governed by supervisory posture rather than a durable prohibition.
If risk-based permissions replace blanket discouragement, the lasting industry divide will be between crypto activities banks can document and control and those that remain difficult to fit into prudential oversight.
The trend: US bank-crypto policy is moving from broad supervisory deterrence toward conditional, risk-managed access, with agency guidance determining how easily crypto firms can obtain banking relationships.
Back in 2021 the OCC said that banks could issue stablecoins (https://t.co/...). New guidance from the Fed, FDIC, and OCC (https://t.co/...) suggests the opposite. Issuing crypto-assets is now seen as being “inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices.” https://twitter.com…
This doesn't sound good for Silvergate: Regulators “have significant safety and soundness concerns with business models that are concentrated in crypto-asset-related activities or have concentrated exposures to the crypto-asset sector.” https://www.wsj.com/...
“It is important that risks related to the crypto-asset sector that cannot be mitigated or controlled do not migrate to the banking system.” There it is, folks, the blank check for every law and regulation Sauron wants to turn Bitcoin into Bitcoin!™. https://www.federalreserve.go…
1/ The Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the OCC just released this devastating Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Risks to Banking Organizations. https://www.federalreserve.gov/ ...
The @federalreserve and others warn U.S. banks that issuing or holding crypto on their balance sheets isn't safe. It's the latest of several similar statements, including last month's financial-risk report highlighting crypto. @jesseahamilton reports https://www.coindesk.com/...
Current Cryptos pose a risk to monetary policy and currency control to every nation that has a national currency. I speculate that in 2023/24 there will be a move towards CBDCs and eventually the banning of decentralized cryptos. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
🧐The @FederalReserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said that recent failures of major crypto firms led them to exercise caution in reviewing banks' proposals to engage with the market. 🫠 https://www.wsj.com/...
Federal banking regulators warned Tuesday of a litany of risks associated with cryptocurrencies and expressed skepticism that the assets can be safely held by financial institutions. https://www.wsj.com/...
heres a new statement from the @federalreserve concerning crypto businesses and banks.. the TLDR is “be on alert because shits about to get real ugly” https://www.federalreserve.gov/ ...