US banks can now hold crypto – but why is it only for gas fees?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued Interpretive Letter 1186, confirming that national banks can hold the native crypto assets required to pay blockchain network fees, commonly known as gas, as an activity incidental to banking. This ruling resolves a major operational obstacle for banks wanting to offer on-chain services like token custody or running tokenized deposit programs on public chains, as these activities require holding the chain's native asset (like ETH for Ethereum) to settle transactions. The OCC explicitly links this permission to activities already allowed under the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework, emphasizing that holdings must be limited to what is needed for "reasonably foreseeable" operational needs, such as transaction settlement buffers and platform testing, not speculative investment. While this grants OCC-chartered banks a cleaner path by allowing them to internalize gas management, it creates regulatory friction, as the Federal Reserve still considers holding crypto as principal "unsafe and unsound" for state member banks, potentially leading to a two-tier system based on bank charter.

(Source：CryptoSlate)