US banks can now hold crypto
An unnamed national bank has asked the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for permission to hold crypto on its own balance sheet to support blockchain-based services. On Nov. 18, the OCC finally answered.
In Interpretive Letter 1186, the agency confirmed that national banks may hold the native assets needed to pay blockchain “network fees,” clearing the way for regulated institutions to run on-chain operations without external workarounds.
The letter says a national bank may pay blockchain “network fees,” commonly known as gas, as an activity “incidental to the business of banking.” It may hold, as principal, the crypto assets needed to cover those fees where it has a “reasonably foreseeable” operational need.
That…
