received<\/a> a limited-purpose master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City earlier this month. The move drew attention because crypto-linked firms have sought direct Federal Reserve access for years.<\/p>\nThe account could give Kraken access to Fedwire, the Federal Reserve\u2019s main payment network. That system allows institutions to move funds on the same core rails used by banks and credit unions across the United States.<\/p>\n
Waters said the public notice left important questions unanswered. In her letter, she wrote that the Kansas City Fed\u2019s announcement \u201cdoes not disclose specific information\u201d about Kraken\u2019s access to Federal Reserve financial services because of \u201cthe confidentiality of business information provided by applicants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters said direct access to the Federal Reserve\u2019s payment system raises policy, regulatory, and consumer protection questions. She argued that the Federal Reserve must show that any approval follows the law and applies the same standards to all applicants.<\/p>\n
She wrote that \u201canswers to these questions are critical\u201d to ensure the approval process works \u201cwith impartiality\u201d and supports \u201ca safe and efficient payment system.\u201d Waters also said new activity in digital assets, tokenization, payments, and artificial intelligence is moving faster than many existing laws.<\/p>\n
Crypto firms continue push for master accounts<\/h2>\n
Kraken is not the only crypto-linked company seeking this type of access. Custodia Bank, Anchorage Digital Bank, and Ripple\u2019s Standard Custody & Trust Company have also pursued Federal Reserve master accounts.<\/p>\n
Waters has often taken a cautious position on crypto policy. Advocacy group Stand With Crypto lists her as \u201cstrongly against crypto,\u201d citing past statements and votes against crypto legislation. Her latest letter now places the focus on transparency in how the Federal Reserve handles crypto-related account approvals.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Representative Maxine Waters has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City to explain its decision to approve Kraken Financial\u2019s limited-purpose master account.\u00a0 Summary Maxine Waters asked the Kansas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24550,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24549\/revisions\/24550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}