Congressional Research Service report flags shaky ground for banks dealing in Bitcoin

For US banks, the rules on crypto tend to change whenever the people in charge do. That is the core finding of a new Congressional Research Service report, published September 30, 2026. It concludes that whether banks can work with digital assets like Bitcoin depends more on who leads the regulators than on anything written into law. What the report found The report is titled “Crypto and Bank-Permissible Activities” (IF13324). It describes a regime that is ambiguous on paper and fragile in practice. Its central argument is that permission for crypto activities can shift with agency leadership and presidential administrations. Consistent statutory guidelines play a far smaller role than most bankers would like. The CRS traces this pattern back to at least 2017. Since then, the three main federal bank regulators have repeatedly reversed their policies as the political environment changed. Those three are the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Together they decide what most US banks can and cannot do. The history the report outlines follows a recognizable arc. The Trump administration brought pro-...