Odaily Planet Daily News This week, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released the Basel III monitoring statistics for December 2023, including exposure to crypto assets. Given that this data is somewhat outdated due to the upcoming launch of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, it nonetheless shows significant growth in U.S. banks providing crypto services to clients. In particular, the Americas have almost completely exited the cryptocurrency custody space, mainly due to the SEC's SAB 121 accounting rule that prohibits banks from offering custody services, while the incoming Trump administration is likely to completely abandon this rule. In the second half of 2023, assets under custody in Europe grew by 49% compared to the first half, reaching €5.5 billion ($5.8 billion). Globally, 94% of custody is in spot cryptocurrencies rather than tokenized assets or ETPs. In terms of client exposure, the Americas dominate, providing 98% of the services. U.S. banks brought clients a risk exposure of €190 billion ($201 billion). U.S. banks also significantly increased their own risk exposure, nearly quadrupling it, although from a small base. The prudent risk exposure at the end of 2023 was €531 million.

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