In a ruling that has big implications for banks’ ability to use stablecoins as payment tools, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced in a Tuesday (Jan. 18) press release that FinTech lender SoFi will be allowed to buy a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured national bank as long as it stops offering cryptocurrency trading services.
SoFi, which stands for Social Finance, is a lender focused on personal and student loans, but it also provides several investment offerings, including a crypto trading service that offers 30 cryptocurrencies.