Bank of New York Mellon Becomes First Bank to Receive Exemption from U.S. SEC Crypto Accounting Policy SAB 121

According to Un Chained Crypto, in public testimony before the Wyoming Special Committee on Blockchain, Fintech, and Digital Innovation Technologies, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the largest custodian bank in the U.S., was confirmed to have received an SEC SAB 121 accounting standard from its institutional cryptocurrency custodian business ” exemption”. This will be a huge breakthrough for banks looking to get into the institutional cryptocurrency custody business. As part of a broader federal update on Monday, Chris Land, general counsel to U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), testified that the SEC, and potentially other regulators, have cleared the way for Bank of New York Mellon to offer institutional digital asset custodian services.In his testimony, Land said, “Bank of New York Mellon is looking to get more deeply involved in the cryptocurrency custodial business, and they've had some issues with Statement of Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121, and the SEC has apparently granted them some sort of exemption so that they can move forward.” This comes after SEC chief accountant Paul Munter revealed in a surprise speech that the agency has granted some exemptions from SAB 121, mainly because it found that the rule does not apply to certain entities if certain conditions are met.Munter said that a bank, several brokerage firms, and other entities that use blockchain to track and transfer traditional financial assets have been granted exemptions, but he did not specify the names of those entities.