With the re-election of Donald Trump as US President, the global cryptocurrency sector is expecting a number of pro-crypto policies in the coming months. In a recent interview with CNBC, the Bank of America (BoA) chief said that banking systems will become “tougher” on crypto transactions as soon as the rules governing the sector are more clearly defined. The BOA chief’s comments come as the US SEC established a special task force to begin drafting crypto-related rules after Trump returned to the White House on Monday.
BOA CEO Brian Moynihan said Interview It said on Tuesday that once crypto regulations are more defined, these virtual assets could be classified as real fintech tools that can be integrated into existing financial services and businesses.
“We already have hundreds of patents on blockchain, we know how to enter this field. If regulations come in, you will find that the banking system will become harder on its transactional side,” CNBC quoted Moynihan as saying on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Based in Charlotte, US, BoA was founded in 1998. While the bank has steered its customers away from crypto-focused services, it has expressed its views on crypto in the past. In October 2021, the bank published a report stating that the crypto sector had become too large to ignore. Also at the time, BoA had said it would be open to exploring crypto in-depth due to the intense interest from institutional investors.
Currently, Moynihan is one of many waiting for President Trump’s crypto-related executive orders to decide the direction of the BOA’s action around crypto services. During his re-election campaign, Trump, who previously served as the 45th President of the United States, promised to make the US the crypto capital of the world. He has also talked about making Bitcoin a reserve asset. The current valuation of the crypto market is $3.62 trillion (approximately Rs 3,12,61,550 crore). coinmarketcap,
Amidst the regulatory uncertainty surrounding crypto in much of the world, many traditional banks have been hesitant to engage with the volatile sector. However, some financial institutions have experimented with crypto services despite the lack of clarity in related laws.
Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs and Hong Kong’s ZA Bank have entered crypto-related services in recent years.
Despite talking about the banking sector’s readiness for crypto, Moynihan refrained from commenting on the potential of crypto assets like Bitcoin as a long-term investment option.