US Regulators Exploring How Banks Could Hold Crypto Assets (reuters.com) 43
A top U.S. bank regulator said U.S. officials are looking to provide a clearer path for banks and their clients that are looking to hold cryptocurrencies, in order to keep control over the fast-developing asset. Reuters reports: Jelena McWilliams, who chairs the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, told Reuters in an interview on Monday that a team of U.S. bank regulators is trying to provide a roadmap for banks to engage with crypto assets. That could include clearer rules over holding cryptocurrency in custody to facilitate client trading, using them as collateral for loans, or even holding them on their balance sheets like more traditional assets.
"I think that we need to allow banks in this space, while appropriately managing and mitigating risk," she said in an interview on the sidelines of a fintech conference. "If we don't bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks. ... The federal regulators won't be able to regulate it." McWilliams' comments provide the fullest picture yet of what regulators are exploring as part of a cryptocurrency "sprint" team first announced in May. The goal of the team was to ensure cryptocurrency policy coordination among the three main U.S. bank regulators - FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
"I think that we need to allow banks in this space, while appropriately managing and mitigating risk," she said in an interview on the sidelines of a fintech conference. "If we don't bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks. ... The federal regulators won't be able to regulate it." McWilliams' comments provide the fullest picture yet of what regulators are exploring as part of a cryptocurrency "sprint" team first announced in May. The goal of the team was to ensure cryptocurrency policy coordination among the three main U.S. bank regulators - FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
What they actually mean is (Score:1)
Funny thing is, take away the drugs, ransomeware and money laundering and you can kiss crypto goodbye, as that's where the "floor" is that keeps the speculators around.
Once again folks, vote in your primary election. I've had a pro-corporate and an anti-corporate candidate in every one I've voted in for about 10 years now... and the pro-corporate guy won every time.
Re: What they actually mean is (Score:1)
Six words from TFA summarise it nicely: keep control, mitigating risk, regulating it No more to say.
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You missed the part where it's the regulators "exploring" how the banks can make more money.
Translation: They're waiting for the banks to come up with a suitably sized bribe.
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how can banks *profit* from crypto.
Which would taint its amazingly stellar reputation of frequently giving average folks their very own rags-to-riches success stories (that's sarcasm, if you couldn't tell), in exactly what way? Honestly, who cares if another set of rich scumbags want in on this shitshow before it crashes and burns (and probably takes some of the real economy down with it)?
Cryptocurrency means absolutely zilch to working class folks living paycheck-to-paycheck. When the rent needs to be paid, you're not going to have a few
It'll crash once it hits $100K (Score:2, Interesting)
Honestly, who cares if another set of rich scumbags want in on this shitshow before it crashes and burns (and probably takes some of the real economy down with it)?
Ironic how it'll eventually cause another economic meltdown - the very thing it was born out of, and claimed to want to prevent.
Listening to all the bros's advice to buy and "hodl" crypto is like listening to lottery ads, believing in spending a few dollars will shower you with riches, and then going out to buy a lottery ticket, but with one twist:
Bro: "Holy cow! I just bought a winning $5M scratch ticket!!"
Bystander: "Wow, great luck! Whatcha gonna do with all that money once you turn it in?"
Bro: "Oh n
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Just keep spreading those lies about blockchain. Drugs, ransomware, and money laundering comprise a tiny fraction of blockchain transactions.
Re: What they actually mean is (Score:2)
Less than USD.
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Glad you asked!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/h... [forbes.com]
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Personally, I don't think that crypto is safe enough. Sounds like a bad idea.
Ie; manipulate (Score:2)
Let's be honest, all they care about is how they can control it.
Your missing the point. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because crypto works without any need to attach a bank to your account so they can vampire your money away. It is litterally the biggest middle finger to the banking industry the world has ever seen
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Except for that tiny little problem of not actually being able to store real USD on any blockchain. At a real bank I can deposit my earnings as USD, and get the same amount of USD back out whenever I want.
Yeah, there are some folks who have came up with the idea of ostensibly stable crypto tokens that are supposed to be exchangeable 1:1 for USD, but due to lack of regulation and oversight, things are fishy [cnbc.com].
Until/if the federal reserve gets into the cryptocurrency game, banks are still gonna be where you pu
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What if I just want to be able to buy a pack of gum without some miner out there siphoning $100 worth of wealth out of the system.
Re: Your missing the point. (Score:2)
Then you use the Lightning Network like everyone else does.
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How is that different or better than depositing bitcoin in a bank and using the traditional banking system?
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> Except for that tiny little problem of not actually being able to store real USD on any blockchain
You are exactly as capable of doing this as you are at a bank. You simply use "Tether" (USDT) or "USD Coin" (USDC). The "Tether" example is particularly apt, as they began claiming to back every tether with one dollar in a mysterious place you couldn't see (the same thing banks used to do), and then, under investigation, it turned out that they were backed by a variety of assets, meaning that if there wa
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In practice, I rarely see a way to spend crypto without using a "payment processor". The banking industry has its teeth sunk into crypto. They are not threatened by it at all. To them, its a huge opportunity.
Note that cash doesn't have payment processors taking a percentage of transactions.
Re: Your missing the point. (Score:2)
Cash doesn't need a processor taking a cut, because credit card companies don't allow you to charge less for cash, so the credit card fees get added to the cash transactions as well.
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Because crypto works without any need to attach a bank to your account so they can vampire your money away. It is litterally the biggest middle finger to the banking industry the world has ever seen
Not just the banking industry, but the whole Central Banking-driven world. Every single major currency in the world is a fiat currency with no real value behind it other than the force of the governments that use them. For all the people bitching that BitCoin isn't "real" money, none of it is real money. The difference is that Central Bank fiat currencies are real because they say so, and BitCoin is real because we say so. If people give something value, then it has value whether it offends your political s
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Because crypto works without any need to attach a bank to your account so they can vampire your money away. It is litterally the biggest middle finger to the banking industry the world has ever seen
Really, you should be ashamed of yourself. Currency-Currency exchanges are like banks, just more criminal.
They can hold it the same way they hold cash (Score:2)
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Print out the keys and put the paper in the vault.
Cash has a convenient number printed on it to assign value.
How are they going to do that with bitcoin is the problem.
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But that convenient number bears no relation to the dollar value of the bitcoins.
Which is what the bank need to know to value the asset.
The cash number does.
Re: They can hold it the same way they hold cash (Score:2)
Why are you valuing your Bitcoin in dollars? The numbers on dollars have no basis to tie them to their Bitcoin value. You are trying to make a point, probably, but you failed miserably.
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My bitcoins are valued at zero. In both bitcoin and dollars.
I missed that boat. Good luck to you if you if you're retired on some tropical island.
Banks very much depend on the dollar value of their assets.
Should you really be commenting on this topic if you didn't understand a single word in the heading?
US Regulators Exploring How Banks Could Hold Crypto Assets
A Fark headline said it best (Score:2)
Anyone else remember credit default swaps? Imagine the shenanigans you could get up to with assets whose value is entirely imaginary or based on the amount of drugs and money laundering you can do with them?
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"Federal regulators work on cause of next financial crisis"
That's the kind of wealth redistribution conservatives actually like. Take from the rich and give to a different set of rich people.
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Yeah, right (Score:3)
Let's let banks hold crypto as assets, so when we have a crypto crash we take down all the banks
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Funny thing is, taxpayers haven't really bailed out anyone yet, because politicians roll everything into debt.
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Who suffers or gets depressed? Certainly not the bankers or regulators.
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Psh, there's a crisis, no time for questions like that!