Caitlin Long: “The Fed May Make It Difficult For Banks With Cryptocurrencies”

Caitlin Long, CEO of cryptocurrency bank Avanti, fears that the US Federal Reserve may prohibit cryptocurrency firms from using banking services.

Regulators are increasingly tightening their oversight of the cryptocurrency industry. However, Caitlin Long believes that their actions are not aimed at regulating crypto assets, but at confronting them.

The Avanti executive suggests that the authorities will not directly target bitcoin or ether, but prefer to take action against organizations that act as an intermediary between users and virtual asset service providers (VASP). We are talking about banks, financial institutions and payment systems. It is they who are the connecting link through which US dollars flow into the cryptocurrency space and back.

“The problem is not at all in bitcoin, ether or other cryptographic protocols, everything is fine with them. The risk may lie in the operational processes of banks “, –
stated Long.

She added that on July 13, the period of discussion of the rules for access to payment systems, which were proposed by the Fed, ended. This will be a defining moment in the further regulation of the industry, despite the fact that cryptocurrencies were not directly mentioned in the Fed’s recommendations, Long said. IN
leadership The Fed describes a system that the central bank will use to assess requests for access to financial services.

Long cited the example of the situation in 2017, when many banks began to massively close the accounts of firms working with digital assets. Long expressed concern that a similar situation could occur in the near future.

“It didn’t matter then whether these firms were legal or fraudulent. Banking services have been denied to anyone who has worked in the cryptocurrency industry. It is important that law-abiding cryptocurrency firms are able to directly access US dollars on their own. But you don’t have to take away their banking services to do that, ”Long said.

As a reminder, Avanti opened in February last year and became the first cryptocurrency bank in the United States. At the end of last year, he received a license from the Wyoming regulator, allowing him to engage in the storage of cryptoassets.

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