In a historic decision, the United States stock and values commission (SEC) has officially rescind the Personnel Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121, a controversial rule that for a long time had prevented banks from offering custody services of Bitcoin and Crypto. This movement, announced on Thursday, points out a significant change in the sec approach to regulate Bitcoin and Crypto and Pavimenta the way for greater financial integration.
Rupture: 🇺🇸 SEC officially terminates Sab 121, which prevented the banks from guarding #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/vcnggkcgml
– Magazine bitcoin (@bitcoinmagazine) January 23, 2025
Introduced in March 2022 under the former president of the SEC, Gary Gensler, SAB 121 required institutions that have Bitcoin and cryptographic assets so that customers register those holdings as liabilities in their balances. This accounting standard created important operational and financial loads for banks and custodians, effectively discouragement to provide bitcoin related services. The rule was widely criticized by the cryptographic industry and the legislators, with the SEC Commissioner, Hester Peirce, called a “pernicious grass” in April 2023.
“Goodbye, Goodbye Sab 121! It has not been fun,” Peirce wrote in a publication about X (previously Twitter) on Thursday, after the ID issuance of the Personnel Accounting Bulletin No. 122, which formally terminates the guide .
The SEC movement to terminate Sab 121 occurs a few days after Gensler’s resignation and marks the beginning of a new era under republican leadership. The interim president of the SEC, Mark Uyeda, who assumed the role on Monday, quickly announced the formation of a cryptographic working group directed by Peirce to create clearer and most practical regulatory frameworks for the industry.
“To date, the SEC has been based mainly on application actions to regulate cryptoactive and reactive, often adopting novel legal interpretations and not tested on the road,” the agency acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday.
With the elimination of SAB 121, the main banks are now expected to move quickly to integrate the custody services of Bitcoin and Crypto into their offers. This is a significant milestone in financing Bitcoin, bringing it closer to conventional adoption.