Will Any Crypto Be Left For Congress?

Although media last week seems suddenly to have discovered that banking is getting a divorce from cryptoassets, FedFin noted the inevitability of a parting following our analysis of the Fed’s crypto standards (see FSM Report CRYPTO31), the inter-agency statement reaffirming it, and Basel’s tough stand on crypto-related capital requirements (see FSM Report CRYPTO37).  Many in the cryptoverse have demanded that the SEC stop de facto regulation via tough enforcement actions, but they may well think differently when they look at the agency’s new proposal for crypto-related custody.  As we noted last week, this proposal has broad implications for custodian banks and the investment advisers who need them, but its stringent new standards could be so toxic to cryptoassets as to reconfigure them into the tokenized versions of fiat-currency obligations to which the banking agencies and the SEC are far more friendly.

Al022023.pdf