U.S. banks are moving closer to offering direct Bitcoin access inside their own platforms after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) confirmed that national banks and federal savings associations may act as intermediaries in crypto transactions using a riskless principal model. In this setup, a bank simultaneously buys from one customer and sells to another, avoiding inventory risk while still providing execution, settlement, and compliance controls.
The OCC’s position—formalized in Interpretive Letter 1188—puts digital assets on similar operational footing to securities and certain derivatives that banks already handle this way. The regulator emphasized that these activities must be conducted “in a safe and sound manner” and will be reviewed as part of ongoing supervision. For customers, it means a route to buy or sell BTC through familiar, regulated banking channels rather than only via crypto-native platforms.
What changes now
Practically, the guidance allows banks to plug crypto dealing into their brokerage-like workflows—matching client orders, handling fiat rails, and providing statements and tax reporting—without warehousing coins on their own balance sheets. That can lower operational and accounting hurdles that historically kept many banks on the sidelines. Reuters framed it as a significant step that narrows the gap between traditional finance and crypto activity by clarifying what banks can do today.
Industry outlets quickly echoed the same core point: the OCC has confirmed banks can facilitate customer crypto trades as riskless principals, much like they already do in other asset classes. The upshot is cleaner, bank-grade access to Bitcoin and potentially other tokens—subject to the bank’s risk, compliance, and product policies.
The first movers: PNC’s spot Bitcoin trading
The policy backdrop aligns with real products now hitting the market. PNC Bank this week launched spot Bitcoin trading for eligible Private Bank clients, becoming one of the first major U.S. lenders to offer direct exposure inside its own digital channels. The service is powered by Coinbase’s “Crypto-as-a-Service” stack, letting clients buy, hold, and sell BTC through PNC’s interface. Bloomberg/Yahoo and CoinDesk both reported the rollout, while a PNC press release called it a first among large U.S. banks.
Expect more wealth-management groups to follow: the riskless principal model offers a way to satisfy client demand while keeping market exposure and custody arrangements tightly controlled under bank oversight and vendor due diligence.
Why banks are moving now: the policy runway
The OCC’s interpretive letter lands after a year of regulatory resets that made bank crypto services easier to build:
- In March 2025, the OCC clarified that banks may engage in certain crypto activities (custody, some stablecoin uses, network participation) without seeking prior supervisory non-objection—reversing a more restrictive posture from earlier years.
- In January 2025, the SEC rescinded SAB 121, a staff bulletin that had effectively penalized banks for safeguarding customer crypto by forcing a balance-sheet liability treatment. Industry groups argued the rule discouraged banks from offering custody; its removal lowered an accounting barrier to entry.
Together, those moves created a clearer compliance and accounting pathway. OCC IL 1188 now addresses the execution layer by treating crypto riskless principal trades as part of the “business of banking,” with the usual safety-and-soundness controls.
What clients can expect
In the near term, offerings will likely roll out first to wealth and private banking segments—exactly where PNC started—before expanding. Customers may see:
- Buy/sell Bitcoin directly in their bank app, with bank-grade KYC/AML, statements, and tax docs.
- Transparent fees akin to brokerage spreads/commissions rather than opaque markups.
- Integrated custody via vetted third parties (or bank affiliates) instead of do-it-yourself wallet management.
Because banks can match orders without holding crypto inventory, the model reduces some operational risks for institutions while giving clients a regulated alternative to offshore exchanges. ForkLog’s report summarizes the same architecture: banks execute one client order while simultaneously opening an offsetting position with another, acting as the intermediary rather than a market maker with proprietary coin holdings.
The fine print: controls and limits still apply
None of this is a free-for-all. The OCC stresses that banks must verify that each crypto activity is authorized, maintain robust compliance and operational risk controls, and demonstrate expertise managing counterparty default risk. Expect product menus to remain curated (e.g., BTC first, perhaps ETH later) while banks test systems and supervision at limited scale.
And while the policy tide has shifted, critics warn about greater interconnection between banks and a still-volatile market. Reuters notes concerns that closer links could raise systemic risk if stress in crypto leaks into traditional finance—another reason early deployments are surfacing in tightly controlled wealth channels.
Bigger picture: bank rails vs ETFs and fintechs
For U.S. investors, 2024–2025 brought spot Bitcoin ETFs and a wave of fintech integrations. Bank-intermediated crypto is the next rail: it blends familiar client experiences (secure login, consolidated statements) with regulated execution and custody. If adoption follows the pattern seen in ETFs—steady inflows once the plumbing is in place—banks could become a major entry point for Bitcoin alongside brokerages and dedicated crypto platforms.
Bottom line
The OCC’s new guidance, anchored by Interpretive Letter 1188, lets U.S. banks act as riskless principal intermediaries in crypto trades, clearing the way for direct Bitcoin access in bank apps. With PNC already live for private clients and earlier hurdles like SAB 121 removed, a broader wave of bank-grade BTC services looks set to arrive—delivered with the compliance, disclosures, and guardrails mainstream customers expect.