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The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) published minimally redacted letters sent to banks requesting information about their crypto activities and in most cases asking them to pause activities pending feedback. The FDIC was forced by a June 2024 court order filed by Coinbase (through its contractor History Associates), to release the letters after initially turning down the exchange's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. According to Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, "they show a coordinated effort to stop a wide variety of crypto activity". https://www.fdic.gov/foia/history-associates-inc-v-fdic-fdics-redacted-pause-letters-january-3-2025 https://www.ledgerinsights.com/fdic-publishes-crypto-pause-letters-including-usdf-consortium/

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is taking a look at claims by bankrupt crypto broker Voyager that its customer deposits held in an omnibus account at New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank were FDIC insured. The FDIC protects customers from losing their funds in the event of a bank collapse, insuring up to $250,000 per account. This insurance, however, usually only applies to an actual bank failure, not upon failure of the bank's client, i.e., Voyager's collapse wouldn't necessarily trigger an FDIC backstop.

Travis Hill, Vice Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) acknowledged there had been some crypto debanking. It was part of his wide ranging analysis of potential future policy directions including changes to be made with respect to digital assets, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain. "Access to a bank account is essential for individuals and businesses to participate in many aspects of the modern economy. A longstanding goal of the FDIC's has been to decrease the number of people who are unbanked. Efforts to debank law-abiding customers are unacceptable, regulators must work to end it, and there is no place at the FDIC for anyone who has pushed - explicitly or implicitly - banks to stop serving law-abiding customers." https://www.fdic.gov/news/speeches/2025/charting-new-course-preliminary-thoughts-fdic-policy-issues

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will no longer instruct banks to get prior sign-off before they engage in crypto-related activities - a standard that was set in 2022 that effectively blocked FDIC-supervised institutions from engaging in such activities as they waited for approvals that never came. Earlier in March 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rescinded its similar 2022 guidance. https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2025/fdic-clarifies-process-banks-engage-crypto-related https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-16.html

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released 175 documents related to its supervision of banks that engaged in, or sought to engage in, crypto-related activities. They show that such requests from banks were almost universally met with resistance, ranging from repeated requests for further information, to multi-month periods of silence as institutions waited for responses, to directives from supervisors to pause, suspend, or refrain from expanding all crypto- or blockchain-related activity. Looking forward, the FDIC is actively reevaluating its supervisory approach to crypto-related activities, including replacing Financial Institution Letter (FIL) 16-2022 required prior approval before banks can offer crypto-related services, and providing a pathway for institutions to engage in crypto- and blockchain-related activities while still adhering to safety and soundness principles. https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2022/fil22016.html

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is reportedly studying whether certain stablecoins might be eligible for its coverage. The agency is trying to analyze what so-called pass-through FDIC insurance might look like for the reserves that stablecoin issuers hold at banks. Such coverage would insure holders of the tokens against losses up to $250,000 if the bank holding the collateral were to fail. The FDIC is also looking at what regular, direct deposit insurance might look like for banks that want to issue stablecoins.

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) put out a request for public feedback on depository institutions holding digital assets. The announcement calls for information on digital assets in payments, settlement, reserve holdings, custody and investing at member banks. The questions involved are notably open-ended, including: "Are there any unique aspects of digital asset activities that the FDIC should take into account from a supervisory perspective?" https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2021/pr21046a.pdf

With its rule change, the FDIC has significantly broadened the ability of fintechs and nonprofits to partner with banks without having being characterized as a "deposit broker" - so long as the third party's primary business is not accepting deposits. More importantly, the FDIC has initiated an application process where any third party can apply to the FDIC and receive an exemption if it meets the requirements of the new rule. Once the exemption is granted, banks can receive deposits from the fintech's customers without the deposits being characterized as "brokered deposits" by regulators.

Court documents filed in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) showed the US regulatory body asked certain financial institutions to pause crypto banking activities. In a Dec. 6 filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the court released "pause letters" sent by FDIC officials to the boards of directors for different US banks, whose names were redacted. According to the letters sent in 2022, the FDIC requested the institutions "pause all crypto asset-related activity" in response to the uncertain regulations around digital assets.

"On May 17, 2022, the FDIC board approved a final rule, effective July 5, 2022, addressing false advertising, misuse of the FDIC's name, and misrepresentations about deposit insurance, based on section 18(a)(4) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA). This section prohibits any person from engaging in false advertising by misusing the name or logo of the FDIC or from making knowing misrepresentations about the existence of or the extent or manner of deposit insurance."

FDIC-insured banks don't hold digital assets. They hold US dollars. So this should read "collateralized 1-to-1 with US dollars held at US-domiciled, FDIC-insured banks." But even when corrected, this statement is so misleading it amounts to mis-selling. It implies that anyone who invests in this altcoin benefits from FDIC insurance. This is not the first time I have seen this claim made about cryptocurrency investments. It wasn't true last time, and it isn't now.

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking comment about a potential set of standards and a certification program intended to make it easier and less costly for financial institutions to partner with technology firms. The request for information will address several matters. For instance, it seeks comment on the idea of the FDIC partnering with a standards-setting organization that would develop best practices for technology firms that want to work with banks. The standards-setter would focus on areas such as credit underwriting models. The FDIC is also exploring the possibility of a voluntary certification program that would assess a technology company's compliance with the standards.

Government COVID-related relief payments contributed to a drop in the number of unbanked households in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). Roughly 1.2 million more households are banked, compared with 2019 figures, with nearly half of newly banked households that received pandemic relief payments saying the payments contributed to their decision to open a bank account. But still an estimated 4.5% of Americans, representing 5.9 million households, lacked a bank or credit union account in 2021. https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2022/pr22075.html

"Representations about deposit insurance may be particularly relevant with respect to new financial products or services, especially those involving new technologies such as digital assets, including crypto-assets. New technologies may yield significant benefits for consumers, workers, and small businesses. Nonetheless, especially with respect to new technologies, some market participants may seek to entice consumers to use their products or services by deceptively advertising that uninsured products or services are FDIC-insured. These misrepresentations disadvantage financial institutions that truthfully market FDIC-insured accounts to consumers. Such misrepresentations also harm consumers, who may find that their assets are not insured in a time of financial distress."

"Federal bank regulators in recent years have upended the decades-old, delicate power balance between the states and the federal government in banking. Congress tasked the Fed and FDIC with running utilities; it did not give the Fed and FDIC veto power over U.S. states - and, in turn, power to block the responsible innovations that state banking authorities create as they fulfill their economic development mandates. By usurping state power, the Fed and the FDIC are politicizing what should otherwise stay an apolitical industry. "

"This memorandum reviews this recent FDIC guidance, as well as related guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") concerning when a broker-dealer or other intermediary6 may have created a separate obligation to its customers that would be a "security" for purposes of the Securities Act of 1933 ("Securities Act"), rather than merely acting as a custodian for customer assets. In our view, failure to comply with the SEC's guidance concerning the creation of a separate security would pose a significant threat to the availability of "pass-through" deposit insurance."

The Wild West of cryptocurrency trading is getting something typically associated with the safest of savings accounts: FDIC protection.

Crypto market prime dealer and trading system SFOX is partnering with NY-based MY Safra Bank to offer its traders deposit accounts backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Mobile banking firm Varo Money is now set to receive the first "de novo national bank charter" ever given to a fintech startup, with approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for deposit insurance. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency first awarded Varo preliminary approval in September 2018. Varo Bank is now on track to obtain its final national bank charter pending completion of organizational requirements and meeting the conditions of both the OCC's and FDIC's Federal Reserve membership. Upon full charter approval, Varo plans to expand to additional types of services including credit cards, loans, and additional savings products. https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/bankdecisions/depins/varo-bank-na-draper-utah.pdf

An account that meets the definition of a fiduciary or agency account is entitled to "pass-through" deposit insurance coverage from the FDIC through the third party who establishes the account to the actual owner/principal, provided certain conditions are met.