By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Banks will be allowed to act as intermediaries on crypto transactions, a national U.S. bank ‍regulator said on Tuesday, in the latest step by the Trump administration to narrow the gap between the traditional financial sector and crypto activities.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued new guidance ‌saying that banks can engage ‌in what are known as “riskless principal” transactions that involve crypto assets and would not receive scrutiny from the regulator.

In such transactions, banks effectively act as brokers, buying assets from one counterparty while simultaneously entering into a transaction to sell those assets ‍to another counterparty. The bank does not hold on to any crypto assets in inventory as part of the ‍proces

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