The Association of German banks comments on the Basel discussion paper on designing a prudential treatment for crypto-assets. The Association suggests to categorize crypto-assets and to link them to existing asset classes, where possible. This is in line with the principle of “same business, same risk, same rules”. If it is not feasible to link the crypto-asset to an existing asset class, like e.g. with bitcoin, a new asset class should be created. Stablecoins, in contrast, should be linked to existing asset classes, since they have a traditional asset as underlying. Additional (technological) risks, which result from the setup as crypto-asset, will have to be taken into account additionally.
