Fed has withdrawn guidelines for banks on dealing with stablecoins and cooperating with crypto firms

The revocation of the guidelines will accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency banking

25.04.2025 - 10:55

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3 min

What’s new? The US Federal Reserve is withdrawing guidelines that kept banks from engaging in activities related to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Specifically, the Fed’s Board of Governors is rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter that required financial institutions to provide advance notice of planned crypto asset activity. Any crypto activity will now be monitored as part of the Fed’s normal supervisory process.

Fed press release

What else is known? The Fed is also rescinding the 2023 supervisory letter governing banks’ involvement in stablecoin activities.

The guidance previously emphasized that cryptocurrency and stablecoins, if massively adopted, could pose risks to consumers and the stability of the economy due to frequent use for money laundering and terrorist financing. There are also potential problems with reserves and payment systems.

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The Fed also withdrew two 2023 statements issued jointly by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) at the Department of the Treasury that warned banks about the risks of fraud by their potential partners in the crypto sector.

These statements clarified that crypto firms can make misleading claims about their products, resulting in harm to investors.

The withdrawal marks the Fed’s first major move on the crypto sector under the Donald Trump administration, with the advent of which many regulators have begun to adopt friendlier policies to support innovation.

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For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) previously rescinded an accounting rule requiring banks to account for customers’ cryptocurrency as their liabilities. This move removed a regulatory barrier that was slowing the development of cryptocurrency banking.

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