U.S. national banks under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) can buy, sell, and manage crypto assets. On May 7, 2025, the OCC issued “Interpretive Letter #1184”, clarifying the bank’s authority over crypto-asset custody services. The letter, signed by the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Rodney E. Hood, quotes footnote 39 of the interpretive letter #1170, which states:
“The services national banks may provide in relation to the cryptocurrency they are custodying may include services such as facilitating the customer’s cryptocurrency and fiat currency exchange transactions, transaction settlement, trade execution, [recordkeeping], valuation, tax services, reporting, or other appropriate services.”
Additionally, the letter permits the custodian bank that manages customers’ cryptocurrencies to engage a sub-custodian on behalf of the customers it is catering to. However, the bank “ should develop processes to ensure that the subcustodian’s operations have proper internal controls to protect the customer’s cryptocurrency.”
Just a couple of weeks back, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and other prominent entities withdrew some of the documents that required banks to follow certain protocols and obtain prior consent before dealing with crypto. However, with this new directive, banks could now offer “cryptocurrency custody services, including holding the unique cryptographic keys associated with cryptocurrency,” according to OCC.
Hood stated, “More than 50 million Americans hold some form of cryptocurrency. This digitalization of financial services is not a trend; it is a transformation.”
Many industry leaders praised Hood for this great transformation. Chief policy officer at crypto exchange Coinbase, Faryar Shirzad, wrote on X, “We appreciate Comptroller Hood’s commitment to regulatory clarity, as well as his adherence to supervisory best practices and the letter of the law in his approach to this issue.”
