America’s financial scene has appeared to make another pro-crypto move recently after regulators announced that retail banks would be able to buy and sell crypto on behalf of their customers.
In a statement published on December 9, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) confirmed that banks could act on behalf of clients in the context of “riskless principal transactions in crypto-assets”.
A Move For Crypto?
The move comes after a swathe of cautiously pro-crypto moves that have taken place across the United States over the last year or so.
Banks are joining the ranks of individual businesses, retailers, and even casinos, which offer swift cryptocurrency transactions, speedy sign-ups, and the chance to use a range of both crypto and fiat currencies, including the ability to make Dollar, Euro, Pound, and even MYR deposits to go alongside the likes of BTC and ETH.
When a bank carries out a transaction on behalf of a client by acting as a broker, that is what is known as a riskless principal transaction.
Clarity From The OCC
The OCC added that the bank that carried out the transaction would not hold the crypto itself but would merely trade it on behalf of the client and that this move was a “logical outgrowth” of something that many banks did for their customers.
It added: “National banks may buy and sell financial and non-financial assets held in custody on a customer’s behalf at the direction of the customer and in a manner consistent with the customer agreement and applicable law.”
The news, which comes in the wake of a series of banks writing to the OCC to ask the regulator for permission to make the crypto trades on behalf of their customers, will come as a relief to many people working in the American crypto industry.
A Year Of Change
It was not that long ago that there were enough reports about people in the business of crypto being unable to set up accounts for their companies that it led to a wave of conspiracy theories.
Regardless of that, the OCC’s move in a more friendly direction to blockchain finance, which also saw it saying that banks could get involved with crypto and that they did not need permission from regulators in advance, earlier this year, now brings it more in line with such institutions as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC had, during the term of former chairman Gary Gensler, who took over in 2021, been seen as being rather hawkish on crypto, filing lawsuits against exchanges and crypto companies it accused of either trading in unregistered securities or else being unregistered securities.
Earlier this year, however, Gensler resigned and was replaced by the more reconciliatory and even potentially pro-crypto Paul Atkins.
Since Atkins became SEC chairman, the commission has dropped its cases against the likes of Coinbase and Ripple, which has, in turn, meant that many people in the world of crypto are now in favor of an institution they, not so long ago, once feared and despised.
Similarly, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced in April that it would disband its crypto enforcement unit for regulatory matters and ordered prosecutors to focus on cases where cryptocurrency was being used in very serious crimes, such as terrorism, organized crime, and fraud.
Part of the apparent sea-change in favor of cryptocurrency since the start of 2025 is, at least in part, down to the re-election of Donald Trump.
Although the Republican had previously been somewhat critical of Bitcoin, calling it a “scam against the dollar”, he seems to be a lot more welcoming towards crypto since winning his party’s nomination last year.
This year, he has signed off legislation that has established a fairly supportive regulatory framework for digital assets in the shape of the GENIUS Act.
