The digital asset industry has spent the better part of a decade operating on the periphery of the traditional financial system. For most of that history, the relationship between crypto exchanges and the Federal Reserve has been defined by distance and, at times, open litigation. However, the recent announcement from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City regarding Kraken Financial has fundamentally altered this trajectory. By granting Kraken a limited purpose account, the Fed has signaled that the era of total exclusion is ending, replaced by a nuanced, risk-weighted inclusion. To understand why this matters, one ... (full story)