[HN Gopher] FDIC says banks can engage in crypto activities with...
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       FDIC says banks can engage in crypto activities without prior
       approval
        
       Author : speckx
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2025-03-28 20:48 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | miohtama wrote:
       | For the context, here is the Financial Services Committee hearing
       | on the topic, and what led to these events
       | 
       | https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx...
        
       | viraptor wrote:
       | > so long as they manage their risks appropriately.
       | 
       | How is this part enforced? Self review?
        
       | tetromino_ wrote:
       | Empirically, banks which get involved with crypto tend to blow
       | up: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/debanking-and-
       | debunki...
       | 
       | How should one keep track of whether one's banks have non-
       | negligible crypto exposure, so that one may move one's money to
       | safer institutions well in advance of the inevitable disaster?
        
         | Analemma_ wrote:
         | You can't, that kind of transparency would be job-killing
         | strangulation of business, and probably also DEI or something.
         | So you have to just guess, and accept that you're fucked if you
         | guess wrong. Enjoy!
        
         | Lerc wrote:
         | Empirically, a lot of early ventures into any area tend to blow
         | up.
         | 
         | The first people to try are, almost by definition, the risk
         | takers.
         | 
         | That is not to say they all blow up, or even that the ones that
         | blow up do so because of this particular venture. Just high
         | risk taking is correlated with both blowing up and trying the
         | new thing first.
         | 
         | They may blow up from some completely unrelated risky venture.
        
           | roughly wrote:
           | Empirically, a lot of people who go to casinos also go bust.
        
         | thegreatpeter wrote:
         | Every bank will get involved in crypto if they haven't already
        
           | Retric wrote:
           | Most banks specialize quite a bit, they aren't going to jump
           | in unless crypto gets 100x as large as it is now and the
           | growth just isn't there.
        
         | dist-epoch wrote:
         | Empirically, banks which get involved in any kind of financial
         | activity tend to blow up: lending money, mortgages, forex
         | trading, interest rate trading, ...
        
         | kylehotchkiss wrote:
         | My spider sense tells me Wells Fargo will be one of the first
         | to go all in, they've generally been an org that makes solid,
         | future-focused decisions right?
        
       | tehjoker wrote:
       | It's crazy how America is just devolving into an interlocking set
       | of ever more obvious financial scams.
        
         | FloorEgg wrote:
         | You say that as if it hasn't been going on for at least
         | decades. I'd wager that there's some perspective that could
         | argue it's a default mode of society and financial systems,
         | that occasionally is hard to notice during rapid increases in
         | prosperity.
        
           | tehjoker wrote:
           | I mean, I guess it did peak in 2008, and also in the S&L
           | scandal in the 80s, but still bitcoin serves no conceivable
           | practical purpose. At least CDOs in principle were supposed
           | to get people homes even if they were mostly a scam.
        
             | chews wrote:
             | No, a CDO by definition is a rehypothecation of an asset
             | that really didn't need it, it was just a means to let
             | others bet on what seemingly was a sure thing until it was
             | not. Not only was the underlying security, it's derivative,
             | and an insurance product to boot, that's why insurance
             | companies also got bailouts.
             | 
             | This massive failure is what created the need for bitcoin,
             | a means in which to trap energy (you need to spend money to
             | make bitcoin) and store/move it digitally, then you get the
             | benefit of a visible record of transfers and stores.
             | 
             | As a silvergate, signature, and SVB customer they didn't
             | hedge their t-bill duration risk properly, experienced a
             | co-ordinated bank run and had to sell their assets off at a
             | discount, making them insolvent.
        
         | malfist wrote:
         | It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to
         | believe it
        
       | guelo wrote:
       | Well, crypto vc's purchase of a seat at the Trump oligarchy
       | circle is paying off.
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-28 23:01 UTC)