U.S. OCC officially allows banks to hold 'virtual assets' for the purpose of paying blockchain fees

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an official interpretation that banks may directly hold virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) in order to pay blockchain network fees. It is being regarded as the first case in which traditional financial infrastructure and blockchain-based operations are institutionally connected.

According to crypto-focused media TheStreet on the 19th, the OCC said in Interpretive Letter 1186 published on the 18th (local time) that national banks may hold cryptocurrencies within the scope necessary to pay network fees for networks such as Ethereum (ETH).

The OCC stated, "A bank may directly pay blockchain network fees when necessary to carry out permitted activities, and may hold a reasonably predictable amount of cryptocurrency for that purpose."

The guidance is said to allow banks to pay gas fees and network costs required in operations such as blockchain-based payments, on-chain asset transfers, and tokenized financial platform testing with tokens they hold themselves. The OCC also explained that banks may hold virtual assets needed for internal testing or infrastructure validation.

This decision is in line with OCC Interpretive Letter 1184 issued in May. At that time, the OCC stated that banks may provide virtual asset custody and related services, and may also entrust these to third-party custodians. With this measure, banks will be able to build the 'operational stack' of virtual asset-based services within the regulated sector, including custody, trade execution, stablecoin reserve management, node operation, and network fee management.

Industry, meanwhile, views the policy as removing a practical bottleneck to the development of blockchain-based financial services, because without banks' ability to directly pay network fees, on-chain payments, digital asset settlement, and the design of tokenized securities services would have been impossible.