Kraken's Limited-Purpose Fed Account Hits April 10 Deadline as Waters and Banking Lobby Build Joint Pushback

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and SEC Chair Paul Atkins pushed the CLARITY Act to Trump's desk this week as the Senate Banking markup deadline nears.

Kraken's Limited-Purpose Fed Account Hits April 10 Deadline as Waters and Banking Lobby Build Joint Pushback Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and SEC Chair Paul Atkins pushed the CLARITY Act to Trump's desk this week as the Senate Banking markup deadline nears. Aaron Rafferty April 12, 2026 Key Takeaways: Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid faced an April 10 deadline to respond to Rep. Maxine Waters on the legal basis for approving a "limited-purpose account" for Kraken Financial, a designation that appears in neither the Federal Reserve Act nor the Fed Board's Account Access Guidelines. The Bank Policy Institute joined the critique , with regulatory affairs co-head Paige Pidano Paridon saying the approval "ignores public comment with no transparency into the process for approval or the risk mitigants." Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman described the account structure as "a bit of an experiment," confirming the approval remains a one-year pilot rather than a settled policy. Kraken Financial, the Wyoming-chartered banking subsidiary of Payward, became the first digital asset bank in U.S. history to receive direct Fedwire access when the Kansas City Fed approved its application on March 4. The approval ended more than five years of regulatory engagement and lets the firm settle fiat transfers without correspondent banks. The account is narrower than a traditional master account. Kraken Financial cannot earn interest on reserves, cannot tap the Fed's emergency lending, and does not have access to FedNow or FedACH. The Kansas City Fed classified it as a "limited-purpose account" for an initial one-year term under what Reuters reported Fed Vice Chair Bowman called an experimental structure. Rep. Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House