Basel Committee on Banking Supervision

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a club of banking regulators from major economies, hosted by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. It writes the standards, such as the Basel III rules, that tell banks how big a cushion of their own money they need to absorb losses. It has no power on its own; member countries write its standards into local law.

For crypto, the Committee has set out how banks should treat crypto holdings. Volatile coins with nothing backing them, like bitcoin, get very heavy capital charges, which makes them expensive for banks to hold. Tokens backed by real assets can be treated more gently if they pass strict tests. That rulebook shapes how fast traditional banks dare to wade into crypto.