Pierre Rochard warns US regulators over Bitcoin gap in Basel rewrite
Bitcoin Bond Company CEO Pierre Rochard says US regulators’ Basel III revamp cannot quietly decide how banks treat Bitcoin without clearly explaining the rules and evidence behind them.
Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, warned US banking regulators that their sweeping Basel III capital rewrite leaves unresolved how Bitcoin-related activities should be treated, a gap he says could create legal risk and shape how much capital banks must hold against the asset.
In a formal comment submitted March 29 to the US Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Rochard said agencies cannot finalize rules that effectively determine capital treatment for Bitcoin (BTC)-related activities without clearly explaining the framework and evidence behind that treatment.
The regulators’ March 19 proposals, a package that would comprehensively overhaul the existing US bank capital framework, did not mention Bitcoin, crypto or digital assets a single time. It covers credit risk, market risk, operational risk and counterparty exposures for the largest US banks, but leaves uncertainty over how existing categories apply to BTC holdings, lending, custody and derivatives.
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