2026-10-03 02:50

The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on 2 October 2026, challenging a rule that opens national trust bank charters to non-fiduciary crypto firms. The trade group filed the case in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, according to its own announcement of the suit. The target is a final rule the OCC issued on 2 March 2026, which let companies doing non-fiduciary work, including digital asset activities, obtain national trust bank charters. Previously that pathway was limited to fiduciary custody arrangements. The National Bank Act argument ICBA argues in the suit that the regulator is exercising sweeping powers to charter national trust banks that are not authorised by the National Bank Act. The group also contends that the charters let firms sidestep obligations that bind community banks, naming the Community Reinvestment Act and FDIC insurance, and that crypto trust banks face lighter oversight, leaving small banks at a severe competitive disadvantage. It further argues that uninsured entities could use the charters to sidestep state consumer protections. All of those points are the plaintiff’s arguments, not court findings. An OCC spokesperson said the agency does not comment on litigation. Rebeca Romero Rainey, ICBA’s president and chief executive, said in the announcement: “Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter”. Why it matters for the crypto-banking pipeline The case tests the legal limits of the OCC’s authority to charter crypto firms without new congressional action, the pathway used by applicants including Coinbase National Trust and Ripple. ICBA has opposed those applications since 2025. The suit lands weeks after the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed to advance in the US Senate in September 2026, partly over stablecoin provisions, with ICBA among the groups pushing back. Regulators have credited the pursuit of national trust charters with a resurgence in new banking names after a lengthy drought, and in September the OCC granted a full national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain bank funded by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital and Coinbase Ventures. Separately, the Bank Policy Institute, which represents large banks, backs the broad principle at stake. Paige Pidano Paridon, the group’s executive vice president and co-head of regulatory affairs, said firms engaging in bank-regulated activities should face the same rules as every other chartered institution doing the same work. If they want to engage in traditional banking activities, she added, they should seek full-service banking charters. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/10/03/icba-sues-occ-crypto-trust-charters/

2026-10-02 02:30

FCA opens crypto authorization window with February 2027 deadline The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) began accepting authorization applications from crypto firms on 30 September, with existing firms needing to apply by 28 February 2027 to keep operating under the new regime that takes effect on 25 October 2027, the regulator said in a statement. The gateway applies to every crypto firm serving UK customers: exchanges, custodians, staking services and stablecoin issuers. Firms that miss the deadline would be unable to continue offering regulated cryptoasset services in the UK, as reported when the window opened. Applying is not a formality, either: the FCA said firms will have to demonstrate they meet requirements covering consumer protection, customer-asset safeguarding, market integrity and financial resilience. The MLR carry-over point comes from the industry side rather than the regulator. Emma Banymandhub, chief executive of The Payments Association, warned that registration under the Money Laundering Regulations will not carry over into the new authorization, so even firms already registered with the FCA for anti-money-laundering purposes face a fresh, non-guaranteed application process. She said a “well-run, proportionate authorisation process will be important to maintaining the UK’s competitiveness and building a trusted market for digital assets”. Transitional cover while applications are assessed There is a safety net for firms that apply in time. Those that do can continue providing specified cryptoasset services, including taking on new customers, while their applications are under review, provided they meet the relevant transitional conditions. The FCA expects to decide applications submitted during the window before the regime starts. The transitional conditions themselves are not detailed in the FCA’s statement, so firms cannot treat continued operation as automatic. Scope goes well beyond AML Parliament expanded the FCA’s regulatory perimeter in February 2026 to cover stablecoin issuance, custody, trading platforms, dealing and arranging, and staking. After consultation through 2025 and early 2026, the regulator published its final framework in June 2026, adding requirements around market abuse, prudential standards, cryptoasset admissions and disclosures, and consumer protection. The FCA is offering pre-application support and webinars for firms preparing submissions. It has not stated how long individual applications will take to decide, and no applicant firms have been named so far. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/10/02/fca-crypto-authorization-window-2027-regime/

2026-10-01 02:10

Citi clients can accept stablecoins without ever touching crypto Citigroup and Coinbase have announced an automated service that converts stablecoins such as USDC into dollars and back again for institutional clients, launched in the United States. The arrangement runs both ways. A Citi business client that receives a stablecoin payment never holds the token: Coinbase converts it into dollars behind the scenes, and Citi books the deposit like any other payment. Companies building on Coinbase can open accounts that behave like ordinary bank accounts, powered by Citi’s banking software, with incoming dollars automatically turned into stablecoins. The service targets businesses and large organisations rather than retail users. Coinbase has said more than 150 million people worldwide hold stablecoins, a client base a bank can now invoice without joining the crypto world; that figure is the company’s own and has not been independently verified. Goldman follows in the same week Goldman Sachs has reportedly opened its $100 billion Treasury fund to crypto firms through the Lynq settlement network, without tokenising the fund. Two of the largest US banks plugging crypto firms into legacy rails in the same week points to stablecoin volumes becoming large enough that banks would rather process them than lose them, and it puts stablecoin settlement one step closer to ordinary banking infrastructure. Details of the Citi service remain thin: neither Citigroup nor Coinbase has published its own announcement, so which stablecoins it supports and which clients use it are not confirmed. For FX traders the practical shift is that stablecoin inflows and outflows for US institutions will increasingly land as plain dollar deposits, blurring the line between crypto settlement and banking liquidity. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/10/01/citi-and-coinbase-automate-stablecoin-to-fiat-conversion-for-us-institutions/

2026-09-30 06:01

Bitcoin held near $83,000 on 29 September while Zcash (ZEC) fell about 12%, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.25% and two US data releases due this week. The data calendar that matters The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes August PCE inflation data on 30 September, and the September employment report follows on 2 October. Traders added to bets on further Fed rate hikes ahead of the PCE print as global stocks fell to a one-week low, with the MSCI ACWI at its lowest since 18 September. The Fed has already lifted its target range by 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00%, a move announced on 16 September. This week’s data added to the caution. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 81.9 in September from 88.6 in August, with the Expectations Index down for a third straight month at 63.6. Average expected 12-month inflation in the survey rose to 6.1%, and the share of respondents expecting higher interest rates rose 5.2 points to 68.4%. August job openings, from the JOLTS survey, were little changed at 7.1 million. Brent crude climbed for a second day to nearly $107 a barrel as hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran faded. Bitcoin’s levels and the flow picture Alex Kuptsikevich (FxPro), the broker’s chief market analyst, said in emailed comments that Bitcoin was testing the lower boundary of last week’s consolidation range around $83K, and that a retest of the $82K region, where peaks formed in May and early September, was entirely to be expected under current conditions. His scenario map: “a sustained return to prices below $80K would be an important signal that the market is not ready to move higher for some time yet. If, however, this consolidation is soon followed by a new bullish momentum, it could send the leading cryptocurrency well above $90K.” Bitcoin last changed hands at $83,546.74 on 29 September, down 0.04% over 24 hours, with a market cap of $1.68 trillion. It is pulling back from levels above $87,000. US spot Bitcoin ETFs took in a net $31 million on 28 September, the smallest daily inflow of the past six sessions, according to Farside Investors data. Total crypto market value stood near $2.86 trillion, and a widely watched sentiment index read 74 out of 100 on Monday, just short of “extreme greed”. Zcash gives back its September run Zcash fell about 12% in a single session, the steepest drop among major tokens, unwinding part of a rally of more than 2,000% this month from lows near $50 to an all-time high above $1,485. Futures liquidations exceeded $1 million in one session as the token faltered. The post-drop price level differs between market data feeds, which put ZEC anywhere between about $1,380 and $1,551. Among other altcoins, SOL and HYPE lost 3% to 4%, DOGE fell 3% and XRP dropped nearly 2%, while Ether was flat. For positioning into Wednesday, the watch items are the PCE print and its effect on the 10-year yield, and whether ETF inflows hold above or slip below the $31 million pace. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/09/30/bitcoin-holds-near-83000-as-zcash-tumbles-12-traders-eye-pce-and-payrolls/

2026-09-29 09:50

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday updated its crypto FAQs, telling CFTC-regulated firms they may hold customer funds in tokenised form and keep records on a blockchain. The update, issued on 24 September 2026 jointly by the agency’s Market Participants Division, Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk, confirmed in a press release that staff would not object if a records entity uses blockchain or distributed ledger technology to create and maintain onchain records that satisfy its recordkeeping obligations. The guidance covers any CFTC regulations involving recordkeeping and maintenance of regulatory data. The conditions on tokenised funds Customer funds may only go into tokenised forms of otherwise-permissible investments. Under the CFTC’s guidance, the tokenised asset has to grant the holder legal and economic rights no weaker than those the asset’s traditional holders receive. For derivatives traders, the move is the agency’s latest step in its focus on tokenised collateral, which the CFTC has framed as a way to modernise derivatives markets and improve collateral management and capital efficiency. The FAQs were originally published in March, building on Staff Letter 25-39 on tokenised collateral and Staff Letter 26-05, a no-action position for certain digital assets used as margin collateral. Private chains get an easier ride than public ones The recordkeeping permission is not unconditional. Firms on private networks may not need to maintain offchain versions of their records, but those using public permissionless blockchains should establish systems and controls that let them retain and produce records under any circumstances, including during an emergency or other disruption to the network. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said in a statement: “I’m pleased to see staff update these frequently asked questions consistent with the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry.” The update is staff guidance rather than a formal rule, and it landed days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, though the chairman did not link the two. The CFTC has also reportedly submitted a crypto market regulation plan for White House review. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/09/29/cftc-crypto-faq-update-tokenized-funds-blockchain-recordkeeping/

2026-09-28 13:25

Bitget restarted Bitcoin withdrawals on the Bitcoin network at 08:00 UTC on 28 September, four days after an exploit drained roughly $388 million from its hot and warm wallets. The reopening schedule Bitget set out the timetable in its support notice: ETH withdrawals on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism open on 29 September at 08:00 UTC, and USDT on Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron follows on 30 September. All remaining assets, fiat withdrawals and P2P services are scheduled for 2 October at 08:00 UTC. XRP is not listed separately, so the timetable places it in that final group only by exclusion, and Bitget has not explicitly confirmed an XRP reopening date. XRP withdrawals remained disabled as of 26 September while deposits were open, as stolen tokens moved on-chain. Bitquery, the on-chain analytics firm, measured 27.63 million of the roughly 103 million stolen XRP moving onward from attacker accounts by 02:54 UTC that day, with most of the traceable flow routed through THORChain and swapped toward Bitcoin. 75.35 million XRP remained in six tracked attacker accounts at the time of that measurement. How the loss happened, and who pays Bitget said the unauthorised transfers began around 18:31 UTC on 24 September across multiple networks. The exchange stated that an attacker exploited a vulnerability in a third-party security product to obtain high-level internal credentials and send fraudulent withdrawal commands that bypassed risk controls. Private keys were not compromised, user balances and cold wallets were unaffected, and the vulnerability has been patched, Bitget said. Trading and deposits have continued throughout. Bitget revised its estimate of the loss to about $387.5 million on 25 September, from an initial $351.6 million, after adding Zcash and TRON assets, and confirmed $388 million on 28 September. That makes it the largest reported crypto theft of the year, ahead of the KelpDAO and Drift Protocol exploits. The company said the attackers were ‘sophisticated’ and ‘state-backed’, and it will not speculate on their identity until the investigation concludes. It earlier told media outlets it suspected North Korea, a suspicion rather than a finding. The exchange said losses will be fully covered by its User Protection Fund, which holds 5,500 BTC. Whether that holding can cover a loss of roughly $388 million is an open question. Bitget has also launched a bounty programme paying 5% of any attacker funds successfully frozen or recovered, and Mandiant and SlowMist are assisting the investigation. The next test of the schedule is ETH withdrawals at 08:00 UTC on 29 September, with the full restoration due on 2 October. https://www.forexcrunch.com/blog/2026/09/28/bitget-restarts-bitcoin-withdrawals-four-days-after-388m-hack/