A US banks regulator said Tuesday that banks can now hold crypto to pay blockchain network fees. Per a press release, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today confirmed permissible bank activities related to paying crypto-asset network fees.
Per the OCC, Interpretive Letter 1186 states that a national bank may pay network fees, sometimes referred to as “gas fees,” on blockchain networks to facilitate otherwise permissible activities and hold, as principal, amounts of crypto-assets on the balance sheet necessary to pay network fees for which the bank anticipates a reasonably foreseeable need. The OCC also confirms that a national bank may hold amounts of crypto-assets as principal necessary for testing otherwise permissible crypto-asset-related platforms, whether internally developed or acquired from a third party.
The need for banks “to pay network fees to facilitate otherwise permissible crypto-asset activities and to hold, as principal, amounts of crypto-assets on balance sheet necessary to pay network fees for which the bank anticipates a reasonably foreseeable need is permissible for the bank,” the OCC concluded. “Similarly, the Bank may
hold amounts of crypto-assets as principal necessary for testing otherwise permissible cryptoasset-related platforms, whether internally developed or acquired from a third party.”
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U.S. banks have begun picking up cryptocurrency assets throughout this year, as the crypto wave has blown up thanks to regulatory approval. The latest decision by the OCC though, allows banks a new way to pay their blockchain network fees.