On Dec. 9, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency put out a press release with a very direct message for US banks: you are allowed to sit in the middle of crypto trades. In the memorably titled News Release 2025-121, the OCC published the somehow even worse-titled Interpretive Letter 1188 and confirmed that national banks may run “riskless principal” crypto-asset transactions as part of the business of banking, acting as the buyer to one customer and seller to another, while keeping no meaningful inventory of tokens themselves. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the US Treasury that charters, regulates, and supervises national banks and federal savings associations, as well as the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks.
Author: Andjela Radmilac
Published at: 2025-12-13 20:00:06
Still want to read the full version? Full article
