Banks' spot crypto assets continue to decline as institutions move to exchange platforms.
According to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, global banks held $367 billion in crypto assets in the second quarter of last year.
Romashka Shumba | Edited by Nikhilesh De , Mar 26, 2025 17:33 UTC
Key points:
- In the second quarter of last year, 29 banks held crypto assets worth a total of 341.5 billion euros (US$368.3 billion).
- According to a June 2024 survey, banks had virtually no spot cryptocurrencies (2.46%), preferring exchange-traded products.
- Global observers are keeping a close eye on the financial sector's relationship with cryptocurrencies.
According to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which was published on Wednesday, banks worldwide held €341.5 billion ($368.3 billion) in crypto assets in the second quarter of 2024, but spot crypto assets currently account for less than 3% of all bank assets, which is significantly lower than a few years ago.
The BCBS, which develops measures to ensure banking stability, collected voluntary and confidential reports from 176 banks in June 2024, of which 115 operate internationally. The data showed that only 29 banks contributed €341.5 billion, and the vast majority of them held exchange-traded products that track cryptocurrencies.
Global regulators are closely monitoring the financial sector's exposure to cryptocurrencies following the collapse of crypto-friendly banks like Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. BCBS also recommended that banks' share of spot crypto assets should not exceed 2% in December 2022.
Banks appear to be following this recommendation; their exposure to spot crypto assets has fallen by 44% between 2021 and 2022. According to a June 2024 survey, banks have virtually no spot crypto exposure, at 2.46%, preferring exchange-traded products. Some 92.5% of bank assets are now in these more regulated products that track crypto prices, rather than in the crypto assets themselves, the BCBS survey found.
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