The top U.S. banking regulator is concerned that the Biden administration may roll back some cryptocurrency regulations aimed at protecting consumers. This includes allowing national banks to custody crypto assets put in place during the Trump administration.
Biden Administration Could Change US Crypto Regulations
Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, shared several concerns regarding cryptocurrency regulations in an interview with CNBC last week.
Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC supervises almost 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches of foreign banks.
He was asked to comment about the recent bitcoin bull run from the regulatory viewpoint. Brooks replied:
I will tell you what I am worried about is all of this is happening in the environment where we are about to have a change of presidential administration, and there are calls on Capitol Hill to dismantle some of the regulatory protections we put in place for this stuff.
The OCC green-lighted banks under its supervision to provide cryptocurrency custody services in July. Brooks explained that his agency “is trying to make it safer for people to custody in national banks.” He added: “We’ve talked about banks supporting some of these stablecoin projects. If those protections aren’t in place, I really worry about the environments for these kinds of things. That’s what I’m most focused on. How do we preserve the safety for the people who participate in that market.”
He noted that “We are at a really critical inflection point right now is what I’d tell you. It’s kind of a fork in the road.” He proceeded to outline two paths for crypto regulation. “One path forward is that
