#银行接入加密服务 Seeing the OCC's explanation letter No. 1188, I felt a familiar ripple in my heart. The significance of this matter lies not in its novelty but in the fact that it marks a certain Node in a cycle—the process of Compliance has finally reached the threshold of Financial Institutions.

Do you remember the bull market in 2017? How many people fantasized that banks would fully embrace crypto assets? What happened in the end? The iron fist of regulation came down, and everything was brought back to its original state. In the years that followed, I watched countless projects repeatedly test the waters amid policy uncertainty; some survived, while others perished. Looking back now, those that survived happened to be the ones that were neither aggressive nor compromising, but patiently waited in the gray area.

The OCC's statement this time is very subtle - it emphasizes "risk-free principal" trading, with banks acting as intermediaries rather than inventory holders. This is essentially a risk isolation design and represents the most cautious embrace of crypto assets by the traditional financial system. It is not an embrace, nor does it even count as true participation; it is more like a minimal opening within the existing framework.

But it is this opening that has changed the entire narrative. From "banks are prohibited" to "banks can participate", although it is only a brokerage function rather than holding rights, it has broken that psychological barrier. This confirmation means that subsequent expansions have a legitimate basis—if risk-free trading can be done today, the possibility of discussing riskier options can be explored tomorrow.

History often progresses like this, not in one fell swoop, but through constant confirmation, experimentation, failure, and adjustment. This step is small, but the direction is very clear.