In response to a request for touch upon potential guidelines from the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money (OCC), many main gamers in crypto have written in, asking the regulator to increase the authorizations it offers banks to deal with cryptocurrencies and use blockchain know-how.
Blockchain-backed transfers and new stablecoins as greenback opponents
One of many leaders in blockchain-backed monetary providers, Silvergate Financial institution wrote to the OCC to advertise blockchain as a extra environment friendly approach for banks to ship cash to one another and between consumer accounts. Silvergate pointed to USD-backed stablecoins like USDC or USDT as examples of how a lot faster this method could possibly be:
“Blockchain know-how delivers a acknowledged use case as a switch of worth community, and whereas many proceed to discover learn how to increase upon that use case, as demonstrated by numerous USD backed stablecoin initiatives, they’re doing so inside current regulatory frameworks that don’t present satisfactory steering for regulated entities, like monetary establishments.”
Crypto lobbying group the Blockchain Affiliation equally applauded the instance of stablecoin initiatives, making a central a part of its commentary that the OCC “Permit banks to settle funds and settle for deposits in greenback stablecoins that meet standards outlined by the OCC.”
Coin Heart, a suppose tank and lobbying group selling decentralized community, went a step additional in its response to the OCC, advocating for banks to help controversial privateness applied sciences like:
“(1) trustless transaction mixing applied sciences like CoinJoin for Bitcoin transactions, and (2) privateness enhanced cryptocurrency networks like Zcash and Monero.”
The OCC and new imaginative and prescient for banks
Because the Blockchain Affiliation identified, even well-intentioned and compliant crypto firms working within the U.S. have been unfairly locked out of fundamental monetary providers. That finally ends up hurting customers: “The shortage of entry of cryptocurrency enterprise to secure and sound monetary providers in the end creates pointless dangers for U.S. shoppers.”
Within the OCC’s request, the workplace emphasised the flexibleness of banking, saying “the Federal banking system is properly acquainted with and properly positioned for change, which has been a trademark of this method since its inception.”
The OCC is the workplace of the U.S. Treasury answerable for regulating the nation’s federally chartered banks. Since Brian Brooks took over as appearing head of the workplace, it has seen radically accelerated crypto curiosity. Two weeks in the past, the OCC lastly approved banks to custody crypto belongings. Since then, Brooks has continued to precise curiosity in blockchain as a approach of modernizing funds within the U.S.