OCC Authorizes Banks to Use Blockchains and Stablecoins
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued Interpretive Letter 1174, clarifying that national banks and federal savings associations could participate in independent node verification networks and use stablecoins to conduct permissible payment activities. The letter dealt primarily with payment networks and stablecoins rather than Bitcoin itself.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued Interpretive Letter 1174, clarifying that national banks and federal savings associations could participate in independent node verification networks and use stablecoins to conduct permissible payment activities. The letter dealt primarily with payment networks and stablecoins rather than Bitcoin itself.
For Bitcoin's 2021 environment, the letter was a contextual marker of how U.S. banking regulators were beginning to address public blockchains as payment infrastructure. It did not authorize banks to treat Bitcoin as legal tender or require them to hold Bitcoin, but it widened the institutional conversation around blockchain-based settlement.