Banks Will Have to Explain Cryptocurrencies! Good or Bad for Bitcoin?

While many banks that wanted to respond to the demand during the cryptocurrency craze in 2021 launched services for crypto currencies, cryptocurrency risks also increased.

Bankruptcies in cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022 and failures in banks with high cryptocurrency exposure (Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank) caused the Basel Banking Supervision Committee to take action.

Cryptocurrencies were also among the targets of the committee, which set a set of new rules for banks yesterday. According to the plan prepared by the committee, banks will be required to disclose their exposure and risks to cryptocurrency at regular intervals.

The report included the following statements:

“The 2023 banking crisis was, in terms of its scale and scope, the most significant system-wide banking crisis since the Great Financial Crisis. Today, the Committee published a report assessing the causes of the crisis, the regulatory and supervisory responses, and the first lessons learned.”

The committee’s plan, which proposes a set of disclosure requirements on banks’ crypto-asset risks, will be published soon. “This plan will complement the prudential standard for cryptocurrency risks published in December 2022.”

Although the Basel Banking Committee has warned banks about cryptocurrency risks until now, this is the first time it has taken such a concrete step. With the implementation of the plan, large banks with cryptocurrency exposure, such as JP Morgan, will be required to disclose their crypto assets and risks.

Will banks’ disclosure of their cryptocurrency exposure lead them to reduce this exposure? While the question remains unclear for now, cryptocurrencies continue to be the scapegoat of the banking crisis.