Basel's Crypto Standard Still Punishes Bitcoin as Guaranteed Loss

The Basel Committee's cryptoasset standard has been in effect since January 1, 2026, but it still treats unbacked cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as if they're guaranteed losses. This outdated rulebook governs banks across the US, UK, and Europe and imposes a 1,250% risk weight on Group 2b assets.

This means that a bank holding $100 million worth of Bitcoin would need to set aside $100 million in capital, with no netting of long and short exposures. This is on top of buffers and supervisory add-ons, making the real bill even higher.

The Committee created this standard in 2026 when supervisors were trying to keep crypto out of the banking system altogether. However, now that tokenized deposits, stablecoin reserve management, custody, and on-chain settlement are part of regulated balance sheets, the rulebook is struggling to keep up.