OCC Grants Banks Authority to Hold Crypto for Gas Fees

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued guidance allowing banks to hold specific cryptocurrencies for paying network gas fees. This new notice, released on Tuesday, clarifies that authorized US banks can maintain crypto assets on their balance sheets to cover such expenses as long as these transactions comply with permissible activities. The OCC highlighted that an authorized national bank may hold amounts of crypto-assets necessary for testing crypto-asset platforms.