Comment by Curious Cryptos February 18, 2024 — US Banks Are Coming | Mark Timmis | Coins | February 2024
tl;dr
US banks are aiming for a piece of the cryptocurrency pie.
market snap
market lab
Well, I don’t know. I didn’t buy yesterday because the ETF trades 5 hours a day, US time, while the BTC market trades 24 hours a day. So we went back down to under $51,000 before recovering again. This price action may repeat today. Could we see a pump again at the Asian open tomorrow morning ahead of the relentless ETF-led appetite for BTC?
Of course, making money every Monday morning isn’t that easy, right?
Commentary from Curious Cryptos – US Banks Want to Get in on the Action
Aside from market-making desks, U.S. banks have little involvement in the cryptocurrency industry. And all of this is due to one man and his anti-crypto crusade: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, whose reputation in the cryptocurrency world has been somewhat tarnished.
In March 2022, the SEC issued an accounting ruling called SAB 121 (Staff Accounting Bulletin) that was highly biased against cryptocurrencies. The ruling states that banks providing custodial cryptocurrency services will be required to hold those cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets, requiring more capital and increasing costs for banks. This treatment is in complete conflict with the accounting treatment for all other property management services. The only motivation may have been to make it too costly for banks to participate in the cryptocurrency revolution.
Following Gensler’s public humiliation last year, which was criticized as “arbitrary and capricious” by a judge – a strong statement that forced the SEC to approve a spot BTC ETF – the regulator is once again under pressure to act in a more impartial manner. .
A coalition of lobbying groups has called for changes to SAB 121, saying it is preventing them from participating in the nascent BTC ETF business. According to Bloomberg:
“Powerful interest groups are pressuring the SEC to revise accounting guidelines that would make it more expensive for U.S. banks to hold digital assets for their customers.
“Regulators are already under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to repeal the guidance.”
Bipartisan support for cryptocurrency adoption? I never thought we’d see the day.
…