OCC permits US national banks to custody crypto (Interpretive Letter 1170)

On July 22, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued Interpretive Letter 1170, concluding that national banks and federal savings associations may hold cryptographic keys and provide crypto custody services for customers. The OCC framed this as merely a modern extension of banks' traditional safekeeping business, which was a tidy way of telling the entire US banking system it was now cleared to enter crypto custody.