Share this article
Crypto Markets Jump on OCC Approval for Banks to Use Blockchains
The price of bitcoin and native tokens for other stablecoin-supporting blockchains jumped after the OCC approved banks to use public blockchains.
By Zack Voell
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:51 a.m. Published Jan 5, 2021, 1:51 a.m.
Cryptocurrency prices jumped Monday evening after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a letter approving U.S. banks to use public blockchain networks.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Ether jumped nearly 12% on the letter's release, given Ethereum's dominance as a stablecoin payment settlement protocol, and bitcoin gained 5%. Both leading cryptocurrencies almost fully retraced Sunday evening's losses.
"After a flurry of negative regulatory news, investors are pleased to see positive regulatory news allowing stablecoin and public blockchain integration into the traditional banking sector," said Justin Yashouafar, managing partner at Santa Monica-based Blockhead Capital.
The letter addressed national banks and federal savings associations participating as nodes on a blockchain and storing or validating payments made in native digital assets or stablecoins.
The OCC's letter stands in contrast to a bill introduced in the last U.S. Congress session that would have required stablecoin issuers to obtain bank charters. That aggressively anti-stablecoin proposal resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations sent to leading cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center.
In mid-December the Treasury Department proposed enhanced know-your-customer (KYC) rules on U.S. cryptocurrency users that want to transfer their holdings from an exchange to their own personal wallets.
Yashouafar noted the positive reactions of bitcoin and ether Monday were followed by price jumps from native tokens for other stablecoin-supporting networks, such as Algorand and Solana, both of which support the two largest stablecoins: tether and Circle's USDC stablecoin.
Yet, while the prices of ether and algorand "reacted immediately to the news," Yashouafar pointed out that Solana's had not.
Bitcoin has gained nearly 13% already in 2021 at last check, trading hands above $32,500. Ether is trading just below $1,100, roughly 25% below its record high of $1,448.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
