USA allowed banks to store digital assets

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has repealed rule SAB 121, effectively lifting the ban on banks storing digital assets.

"Goodbye, SAB 121! That was no fun," commented SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on social media.

This decision marks the first significant initiative by Peirce since she took charge of the regulator's digital assets group.

The SEC originally introduced SAB 121 in April 2022. The rule prohibited institutions from recording customer cryptocurrencies as liabilities on their balance sheets. In February last year, four organizations requested that the SEC ease the rule's provisions. At the time, Peirce called the rule and its accompanying verbal guidance a "harmful weed."

Later, the Senate supported a resolution to annul SAB 121. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to overturn it, but later failed to secure the required two-thirds majority to override the president's veto.

A new Staff Accounting Bulletin issued on January 23 officially "rescinded the interpretive guidance" of SAB 121.