According to Cointelegraph, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau of the Treasury Department that supervises national commercial banks in the United States, will host a symposium on tokenization in February 2024. The event aims to initiate a public dialogue on the transformative potential of tokenizing real-world financial assets and liabilities, with a focus on establishing the groundwork for responsible innovation.

Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu highlights the emerging divide between crypto and the tokenization of real-world assets and liabilities, stating that crypto remains driven by speculative gains and struggles to comply with anti-money laundering rules, while tokenization is driven by solving real-world settlement problems and can be developed in a safe and compliant manner.

The symposium will feature keynote remarks from Hyun Song Shin, Economic Adviser and Head of Research at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and panel presentations exploring the legal foundations for tokens, tokenization use cases, risk management considerations, and economic research on tokenization. The OCC plans to livestream the meeting and post registration forms on its website later this year.

The OCC has consistently discouraged banks from engaging with cryptocurrencies through its interpretive letters and has cautioned banks about the potential risks associated with crypto. In March 2023, the agency announced the establishment of its Office of Financial Technology, which aims to broaden the OCC's technology focus and help it stay abreast of the rapid developments in the banking industry.