US banks officially permitted to buy and sell crypto for customers

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued Interpretive Letter 1184 on May 7, 2025, formally granting national banks and federal savings associations the authority to buy and sell digital assets on behalf of their customers.

What the OCC guidance actually permits

The letter authorizes national banks to provide execution services for digital asset transactions at customer direction. Banks don’t have to build the infrastructure themselves, either. The OCC explicitly permits outsourcing custody and execution activities to third-party providers, so long as appropriate risk management frameworks are in place.

The guidance doesn’t name specific tokens or digital assets. Its language is broad enough to cover a wide range of crypto assets, which gives banks considerable flexibility in deciding what to offer.

Critically, banks no longer need to seek prior supervisory approval before launching these services. They just need to meet safety and soundness standards.

How we got here

The OCC first signaled openness to banks handling digital assets back in 2020 with Interpretive Letter 1170, which clarified that national banks could provide cryptocurrency custody services. That came with a catch: banks had to navigate a non-objection process that effectively required them to get a regulatory hall pass before touching crypto.

On March 7, 2025, the OCC rescinded that non-objection requirement through Interpretive Letter 1179. In April 2025, both the Federal Reserve and the FDIC withdrew from restrictive joint statements they had issued in 2023 regarding crypto activities.

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