A group of Republican senators, led by Cynthia Lummis, has sent an official appeal to the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, demanding a revision of the approach to calculating bank capital when dealing with crypto assets. The lawmakers are convinced that current regulations create insurmountable barriers, effectively closing the door for traditional banks to enter the digital currency industry.

The primary point of contention for the lawmakers is the Basel Committee standards, which assign cryptocurrencies the maximum risk weight of 1250%. In practice, this means financial institutions are forced to hold capital exceeding the nominal value of the digital assets themselves. According to the letter's authors, this policy renders crypto custody and trading economically unviable for the traditional banking sector.

Although spring guidelines on the accounting of tokenized securities were met with approval, Republicans consider them merely a half-measure. The senators insist on implementing the principle of technological neutrality, under which regulators should assess the actual risks of blockchain operations rather than discriminating against the technology itself. They demand that banks be granted the right to fully utilize distributed ledgers for settlements, lending, and asset custody within the framework of adequate risk management.