New Federal Reserve Guidelines Could Let Traditional Banks Perform Crypto Functions

Traditional financial institutions could soon be allowed to offer Bitcoin BTC/USD and other crypto services in addition to regular banking functions.

What Happened: A new set of formal guidelines released by the Federal Reserve could see crypto banks and traditional banks performing similar functions, without having to classify itself as one or the other.

Under the guidelines, the U.S. central bank would let special purpose depository institutions (SPDI) like Wyoming-based Custodia and Kraken open “master accounts,” without the need for intermediary financial institutions.

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It noted that that firms offering “new types of financial products” or “novel charters” have grown in recent years and would now have access to these accounts offering by Federal Reserve banks.

What's Next: The guidance will create a multi-tiered system that will allow for the Fed to evaluate whether a firm should have access based on whether it falls under the Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 categories.

Crypto firms would largely fall under the Tier 3 category and may be subject to a regulatory framework that is “substantially different” from  the one that applies to federally insured ones. They will be subject to the strictest level of review, the guidance stated.

"The new guidelines provide a consistent and transparent process to evaluate requests for Federal Reserve accounts and access to payment services in order to support a safe, inclusive, and innovative payment system," said Vice Chair Lael Brainard in a statement.

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