Per an interpretive
letter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released
on Monday, national banks will be free to hold reserve currencies for
stablecoins.

The new guidance reads, "We conclude that a national bank may hold such stablecoin 'reserves' as a service to bank customers."

Alongside
the announcement, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks noted
that stablecoin services are already a part of many banks' activities:
“National banks and federal savings associations currently engage in
stablecoin related activities involving billions of dollars each day.”

The
letter does, however, specify that for now, this will only apply to
stablecoins backed 1:1 with another currency, meaning that tokens
dependent on "baskets" of currencies like Saga or some versions of Libra
are excluded. 

Tether (USDT) is a famous example of a stablecoin
pegged to the U.S. dollar, using reserves held in New York. However,
there has been lingering controversy over Tether allegedly using those
reserves to cover losses at sister exchange Bitfinex.

Since Brian Brooks, the former head of Coinbase's legal department, took over as acting head
of the OCC in March, the office has been extremely active in expanding
the role that crypto can play in U.S. banks. In July, the OCC sent out a
similar decision confirming that federal banks can custody crypto assets.