The U.S. Government Accountability Office, or U.S. GAO, sent a letter on June 8 to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Travis Hill, urging the agency to strengthen coordination around cryptocurrency and blockchain-related oversight. According to the letter, blockchain-related financial products and services have grown substantially, and blockchain technology has been placed on the high-risk list. The GAO said a coordination mechanism would help the FDIC and other regulators identify risks together and implement timely supervisory responses.
GAO calls for a coordination mechanism
The recommendation focuses on how regulators respond as blockchain-based financial products and services expand. Rather than treating supervision as a matter for one agency alone, the GAO urged the creation of a mechanism that would allow the FDIC and other regulatory bodies to jointly identify risks and coordinate responses. The letter links the growth of blockchain-related finance with the classification of blockchain technology as a high-risk area.
FDIC role under the GENIUS Act
The letter also refers to the GENIUS Act, passed last year. Under that law, the FDIC is the primary regulator for stablecoin issuer subsidiaries of banks that it supervises. That role places the agency at the center of oversight for bank-linked stablecoin issuers, making the GAO’s call for structured risk identification and regulatory response directly relevant to the FDIC’s responsibilities.
Beyond crypto-specific coordination, the GAO also recommended that the FDIC rotate the case managers assigned to banks in order to reduce threats to independence. The recommendation addresses the relationship between supervisory staff and the banks they oversee. In 2023, three banks connected to the crypto industry collapsed, prompting questions over whether regulators had taken sufficient action. The GAO letter continues that examination across bank supervision, stablecoin issuer oversight, and the identification of risks tied to blockchain-related financial activity. The report was cited by Cointelegraph.