OCC Greenlights Banks to Trade Customer Crypto—Because Who Needs Permission Slips?
US banks just got a backstage pass to the crypto circus. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) quietly confirmed today that federally chartered banks can now buy, sell, and flip customers’ digital assets held in custody—no ’mother may I’ required.
The fine print:
While banks still can’t gamble with their own balance sheets (thanks, 2008 trauma), they’re now free to play middleman for your Bitcoin stash. Custody services morph into trading desks overnight.
Why it matters:
This isn’t your grandma’s safe deposit box. When banks treat crypto like a tradable commodity rather than a digital collectible, it drags Bitcoin further into regulatory daylight—and straight onto their balance sheets.
The cynical take:
Nothing stimulates ’innovation’ like watching traditional finance reverse-engineer crypto’s disruptiveness into another fee-extraction scheme. Your keys? Their spread.
