Banks May Hold Crypto to Pay Blockchain Network Fees: Regulator

A key US banking regulator said that national lenders may hold crypto to enable the payment of blockchain network fees — as long as these are incurred to facilitate permissible activities.

A “bank’s proposal to pay network fees to facilitate otherwise permissible cryptoasset activities and to hold, as principal, amounts of cryptoassets on balance sheet necessary to pay network fees for which the bank anticipates a reasonably foreseeable need is permissible,” the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in an interpretive letter on Tuesday.

The OCC also said that a national bank may hold cryptoassets as principal necessary ...