During her speech at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025, Michelle Bowman, the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System for supervision, emphasized the need for changes in the regulator’s policy regarding interaction with the cryptocurrency industry. She expressed her belief that allowing Federal Reserve employees to hold a minimal amount of digital assets would contribute to a better understanding of rapidly evolving technologies in the financial sector.
This is reported by Business • Media
Fed’s Approaches to Implementing New Technologies
In her speech, Bowman focused on the transformation of bank supervision, which involves a combination of security, consumer support, and innovation stimulation. She highlighted the importance of tokenization in addressing several issues in the traditional banking sector and noted the role of artificial intelligence in combating illegal activities. According to the official, the Fed is moving away from assessing reputational risk during supervision, which is part of measures against unjustified disconnection of individual counterparties from financial services.
“Today, I would like to discuss the Fed’s approach to understanding technologies and tools such as blockchain in the context of bank supervision, including recent developments, the focus of supervisory authorities on ‘reputational risk,’ and the principles of creating a specialized regulatory framework that takes technologies into account,” Bowman began her speech.
Investments in Crypto Assets and Personnel Policy
Bowman emphasized that allowing Federal Reserve employees to invest in digital assets would promote a deeper understanding of market characteristics and its technological aspects. She added that having only theoretical knowledge is insufficient for effectively overseeing innovations in the financial industry. However, currently, Federal Reserve employees are prohibited from holding crypto assets and derivative financial instruments—a ban that the regulator strengthened in February 2022.
The Fed Vice Chair also noted that investment restrictions could negatively impact the recruitment and retention of specialists with the necessary expertise, as well as the understanding of modern technologies among regulator employees.
“Our approach should allow Federal Reserve employees to hold a minimal amount of cryptocurrency or other types of digital assets so that they can gain insight into how they work.”
Earlier, in June 2025, the Fed officially announced its refusal to consider reputational risk when assessing financial counterparties. Additionally, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2025 to investigate cases of service refusals to cryptocurrency companies and certain political organizations, in response to numerous complaints from market participants.