Travis Hill, vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), said that if the approach to regulating blockchain technology is improper, bank customers and the U.S. economy may lose opportunities. Tokenization of bank deposits and other real-world assets (RWA) can enable financial transactions to be settled in real-time at any time. Additionally, it will provide payment programmability, allowing for intraday repurchase (repo) trading and shortening settlement times for certain bond issuances and many other transactions. Consumers can also benefit from using programmable payments instead of escrow. Global standards are being established, directly or indirectly, and with many non-U.S. jurisdictions actively participating in this area, the United States risks giving up influence at this critical stage.

Hill said regulators needed to provide guidance and maintain consistency so that any form of deposit was treated equally. He criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) controversial Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121).