TechFlow News — January 5: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) stated in an interpretive letter that stablecoins using decentralized protocols could offer greater resiliency than existing payment methods. Federally regulated banks may use stablecoins for payments, indicating that banks and savings associations can now operate cryptocurrency nodes and utilize associated stablecoins for payment activities. However, banks must also recognize potential risks and ensure they can safely and soundly manage them.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks said in a statement that while other regions have built real-time payment systems, the U.S. has "already" relied on the private sector to create such technologies, supporting the use of cryptocurrencies—particularly stablecoins—as alternatives to other real-time payment systems.
Currently, due to high traffic volume, the official website page hosting the interpretive letter has gone offline.
