Overview
- A group of six Republican senators, which sent a letter Thursday, asked the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the OCC to develop technology‑neutral, risk‑based capital rules for banks’ digital‑asset activities.
- The lawmakers specifically attacked the Basel Committee’s 1,250% risk weight, saying that charge effectively requires banks to hold capital equal to or greater than the asset and thus acts like a de facto ban.
- The letter urged regulators to extend the March interagency principle that tokenized securities should get the same capital treatment as non‑tokenized counterparts to other digital assets.
- Regulators faced public scrutiny as their top supervisors testified before the House Financial Services Committee, leaving agencies under political pressure to clarify capital treatment while Congress advances crypto legislation.
- If U.S. agencies keep the high Basel weight, banks will likely avoid direct crypto inventory and market‑making and leave retail and institutional access to ETFs and nonbank firms; the Basel standard itself is under international review which could reshape domestic policy.