USB Resumes Institutional Bitcoin Custody Service Amid Deregulations

U.S. Bancorp USB has restarted its bitcoin custody service following a three-year pause with the easing of the regulatory environment, given the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward digital assets.

The service, originally launched in 2021, was paused after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an accounting bulletin in early 2022 that made it very capital-intensive for banks to act as custodians of crypto assets such as bitcoin on behalf of clients.

Reason Behind USB’s Bitcoin Custody Service Revival

In January 2025, the SEC rescinded the 2022 bulletin when the Trump administration took over. This acted as a catalyst for U.S. Bancorp to reintroduce its long-paused bitcoin custody service.

The bank’s bitcoin custody service will primarily cater to institutional investment managers with registered or private funds, looking for a secure safekeeping solution for bitcoin. Further, NYDIG, a vertically integrated bitcoin financial services and power infrastructure firm, will act as the bitcoin sub-custodian.

U.S. Bancorp will initially offer custody services for Bitcoin through traditional registered funds and exchange-traded funds before foraying into other crypto offerings.

Stephen Philipson, vice chair, U.S. Bank Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking, stated, “We’re proud that we were one of the first banks to offer cryptocurrency custody for fund and institutional custody clients back in 2021, and we’re excited to resume the service this year. Following greater regulatory clarity, we’ve expanded our offering to include bitcoin ETFs, which allows us to provide full-service solutions for managers seeking custody and administration services.”

USB Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Shares of USB have gained 8.7% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 12.2%.

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At present, USB carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Cryptocurrency Ventures by Major U.S. Firms

Major U.S. banks such as Citigroup C and The Bank of New York Mellon BK have indicated interest in cryptocurrency services in some form or another. This is mainly driven by the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance, coupled with the removal of restrictive regulations.

Last month, Reuters reported that Citigroup is considering offering stablecoin custody and other services, while BNY Mellon already offers bitcoin and Ethereum custody services and plans to expand into other digital assets such as stablecoins.

In March, BlackRock Inc. BLK launched a bitcoin exchange-traded product, iShares Bitcoin, in Europe after the solid performance of its $48 billion U.S. fund that tracks the cryptocurrency. This followed the launch of a Bitcoin ETF in Canada by BlackRock.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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