Lawmaker Questions Kansas Fed Over Approval of Kraken’s Master Account
In March, Kraken’s Wyoming-chartered banking arm became the first crypto-native firm to obtain a Federal Reserve master account, granting it direct access to central bank services. This week a US lawmaker pressed Kansas Fed officials for answers about how the approval was granted, raising concerns about oversight, disclosure and whether established risk controls were applied consistently.
The episode matters because a master account can materially change a crypto firm's access to liquidity and payments infrastructure, potentially giving it an edge over competitors and prompting questions about regulatory parity. Lawmakers and market observers say the exchange highlights broader debates over how banks tied to digital-asset businesses are supervised and whether additional congressional or regulatory scrutiny is needed for future approvals.