We all know how US banks (and pretty much all banks for that matter) are all too obliging in "holding" your currency (which they actually don't) in their supposed vaults (actually, they are just digital entries in an illusionary ledger).
The masses are all too trusting in banks, as they really think that their hard-earned savings are safe and FDIC insured which couldn't be further from the truth.
But now, US banks have been actually given the green light to be a custodian to hold their customers' cryptocurrency. See the following related article and official news release:
Cointelegraph.com - US Banking Regulator Greenlights Crypto Custody at Federally Chartered Banks
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) - News Release 2020-98 | July 22, 2020 Federally Chartered Banks and Thrifts May Provide Custody Services For Crypto Assets (full pdf here)
The premise about offering this new custodial service of holding crypto for their customers is to offer news services, modernizing, and keeping up with the technological trends in the finance sector. Bla bla bla; all that usual lip service BS. We all know it's total BS.
As per their news release [emphasis added]:
the OCC concludes that providing cryptocurrency custody services, including holding unique cryptographic keys associated with cryptocurrency, is a modern form of traditional bank activities related to custody services.
Yep, there it is in black & white and it should have been evident from the start. If they hold your crypto, they must have your keys! Hence, you give up legal custody of your asset to them.
In other words, if they are in possession of your keys, there is nothing stopping them from emptying your crypto balance by transferring it elsewhere. And being the crooks that they are, don't think they wouldn't do this.
Furthermore, should you be defined a troublemaker with the authorities, the banks would legally be required to seize/freeze your crypto and there's nothing you could do about it. (assuming you give them a hardware wallet, or don't have the foresight to transfer your funds out beforehand)
So, my first question is: Who would be stupid enough to fork over their crypto & keys (or hard wallet) to banks?
While the answer to this question may seem quite obvious at prima facie, there are scores of wealthy (and totally ignorant) people in the U.S. and elsewhere that would easily do so for the sake of convenience and not being troubled by all the complicated technology involved with crypto (i.e., their brokers or advisors may have simply recommended that they hold/own some Bitcoin, for instance).
Next thing we need to scrutinize about this news that flew well under the radar is the following. You have to look at who is behind this?
The current Acting Comptroller of the Currency is Brian Brooks.
As per the Cointelegraph article [emphasis added]:
"Coming from Coinbase’s legal team, Brian Brook’s tenure as Acting Comptroller has seen accelerated onboarding of crypto capabilities in the U.S. financial system. "
Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, image source
For those who don't know Coinbase, you should. As I wrote last year:
COINBASE:
Let’s face it, Coinbase, one of the largest and most popular digital currency wallet and platforms in the world with over 30 million users, is really the antithesis of what crypto is meant to be. Coinbase is no small exchange; as a website it currently ranks #986 overall in the world in terms of user engagement according to alexa.com. As an early crypto exchange providing its users with a fairly easy means by which they could exchange fiat currency to purchase crypto and enter the market, the tradeoff for them, however, is that they had to submit a lot of personal information basically rendering themselves completely on the radar of the authorities (governmental, intelligence agencies, the taxman, etc.) and thus susceptible to future pilfering and loss of privacy. Case in point: just before tax season last year, Coinbase had to oblige to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) by sending many of its users’ data to ensure they would pay taxes on cryptocurrency gains. As with its previous onboarding of eager crypto enthusiasts along with the inevitable booming of the crypto market, millions more will, undoubtedly and unfortunately, be sucked into this exchange and thus become easy pickins for profiteering.
Now, why I think that the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, is not trustworthy is the simple fact that he was legal counsel for Coinbase.com.
So, who owns Coinbase? the Digital Currency Group (DCG) owns it.
The DCG Group is not to be trusted at all, as I have exposed in Part 2 of my Digital Con of the Century: The DCG Group – How we are being sucked into a digital slave matrix series outlining their incredible reach and power which consists of over 200 companies in the cryptosphere.
Accordingly, any revolving personnel between the entities owned by the DCG Group and the U.S Government or Banking sector institutions should be highly suspect and scrutinized by us all.
Could all of this just be a small occurrence of what may not actually be that significant? Sure.
Nonetheless, I think it can serve as a lesson for us all on what we need to keep an eye on with regards to the government and their bankster buddies, as they are currently fine-tuning their new digital currency (certainly not a privately decentralized cryptocurrency, but rather a centralized digital currency like the one China is currently testing and will implement shortly)
For as if we don't, we just might end up being one of those ignorant bank account holders lead to slaughter.
In peace & Liberty,
