Michelle Bowman backs 'de minimus' crypto holdings for Fed staff

[U.S. Federal Reserve]

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said Tuesday that the central bank's staff should be allowed to hold "de minimus" crypto investments, a move that could bolster bank examiners' understanding of the digital asset market.

"Our approach should consider allowing Federal Reserve staff to hold de minimus amounts of crypto or other types of digital assets so they can achieve a working understanding of the underlying functionality," Bowman said in a prepared speech at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.

"I certainly wouldn't trust someone to teach me to ski if they'd never put on skis, regardless of how many books and articles they have read, or even wrote, about it."

She added [https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bowman20250819a.htm] that the Fed should also assess whether its staff investment restrictions are deterring qualified examiners.

With the passage of the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act, "we're working on [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4487094-feds-bowman-addresses-de-banking-over-reputational-risk-digital-assets-in-banks---report] developing frameworks that will allow for digital assets to exist both inside and outside the banking system in a way that is unquestionably allowable activity," Bowman had said in an earlier interview broadcast on Bloomberg Television.

Last week, the Fed said it's shutting down its Biden-era initiative for monitoring banks' crypto activity, as government agencies under President Donald Trump work to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework.

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