The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has announced new policy guidance allowing banks to hold cryptocurrencies to pay for “gas fees,” transaction fees used in blockchain networks.
The regulation, titled “Interpretation Letter No. 1186,” states that national banks may hold on their balance sheets digital assets that they deem reasonably necessary for their operations.
Transactions on a blockchain network incur fees that are paid in specific tokens of the network. According to the OCC, this requires banks to hold these assets in order to conduct transactions on the network. The guidance specifically states that banks must pay network fees on behalf of their customers or for custodial services, particularly activities that are expressly permitted by the GENIUS Act.
The OCC stated that banks are “legally required to pay network fees to facilitate permitted crypto-asset activities and to maintain on their balance sheets the crypto-assets reasonably necessary to cover those fees.”
The OCC has long been reserved for digital assets, but President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto administration has changed that stance.
*This is not investment advice.
