Acting US Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks is confirming that new crypto regulations will be established prior to the current administration’s departure.
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawkbox, the top regulator at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) says that the public should expect new policies regulating crypto assets in the coming weeks.
Brooks announces that the new set of regulations would focus on providing clarity within the emerging crypto sector, which he believes will help investors feel safer participating in the space.
“I don’t think we need 50 regulations instead of two, but what we do need is clarity about what’s allowed. We need some guidance, for example, about whether banks can connect directly to blockchains as payment networks. The answer has to be yes. We need answers about [whether] banks can custody cryptocurrency so that institutions feel comfortable adopting. And you saw what happened when we gave that clarity.”
Last week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned his Twitter followers that he expected a new batch of crypto regulations to be rushed out by the US Treasury and Secretary Mnuchin.
The Coinbase head believes that the government may try to regulate self-custodied crypto wallets, stressing that the rumored policies would impede the growth of the rapidly changing market.
Brooks emphasizes that his bureau’s goal is not to stifle growth, but to support what he sees as massive institutional interest in the space by providing clarity across the industry.
“So you have clarity across a variety of areas that I think you’ll be seeing just in the next 6 – 8 weeks, which will make it easier for crypto investors to know how to invest, to know how institutions can be in this asset class. Those are the things that are driving prices at this point. You know it may have been a bubble two years ago, but with more clarity, institutions that see this as a real thing are going to adopt at scale, which they’ve already started to do. So stay tuned.”
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