According to Zhitong Finance, bankers in the USA are cautious about Cryptos, although expectations are that under Trump's leadership, friendlier regulations for the crypto industry will pave the way for lending institutions to expand into the digital asset space. Bankers noted that Trump has pledged to become the "crypto president" and end the Biden administration's crackdown on the industry to attract cryptocurrency campaign funds, but banks are unlikely to recklessly enter this volatile asset.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon stated: "The regulatory framework must evolve... Everyone is speculating on how the regulatory framework will evolve, but it is still unclear."

He added that if the rules change, Goldman Sachs will "evaluate" the Trade of top Cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, "but for now... our ability to act in these markets is very limited"; he also pointed out that Cryptos are speculative assets.

Robin Vince, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon, stated that the bank has recently begun to offer custody services for Cryptos held in exchange-traded products, and it has also invested in a range of digital asset services. However, he noted that any new initiatives require proper safeguards and need to undergo "real-world testing" over several macroeconomic cycles. Vince said: "We have seen several cycles in Cryptos. We must observe how some of these Assets will evolve."

Under President Biden's leadership, USA banking regulators have made it more difficult for large Banks to hold crypto tokens and issued accounting guidance that made the cost of providing crypto custody services exceedingly high. With Trump entering the White House, such conditions are expected to change, as the crypto industry is pushing a series of ambitious policies aimed at promoting the widespread adoption of digital assets, including the repeal of the SEC's accounting guidance and requesting banking regulators to ease scrutiny over the crypto industry.

In a key step for policy reform, last week Trump announced he would appoint former PayPal executive and crypto evangelist David Sacks as the White House's "crypto czar" and nominate crypto-supporting Washington lawyer Paul Atkins as chairman of the SEC. The news of the latter's nomination pushed Bitcoin past the milestone of $0.1 million for the first time.

However, Trump has not yet announced his nominees for the banking regulatory agencies, and Federal Reserve's top Wall Street cop Michael Barr has expressed skepticism towards Cryptos, indicating his term will last until 2026. This has created uncertainty about the pace at which banking regulators will loosen oversight of crypto lending and trading, especially following last year's turmoil in the crypto industry that led to the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Democratic commissioner Kristin Johnson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates the market, stated that this turmoil, including the collapse of leading crypto Exchange FTX, could quickly be forgotten by policymakers. Johnson remarked, 'One of my biggest concerns about any administration is that they forget the lessons we should learn from many past crises.'

Bankers stated that even with regulatory loosening, any expansion into the crypto space will be driven by customer demand, which remains limited. Bank of America provides exposure to Cryptos through Exchange-traded funds to some clients, but the bank's consumer investing and employee banking and investment head Matt Gellene noted, 'There isn't much interest.'

Paul Akita Somani, senior vice president and director of inclusive growth strategy at Bank of America, indicated that wealthy young professionals are more likely to source investments that include digital Assets, but Bank of America has also not seen 'huge demand.'