Specifically, the resolution targeted the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which presents guidance around how banks can handle customers’ crypto assets — in effect, they must treat those assets as liabilities. Banking groups have criticized this approach as making it prohibitively expensive for them to handle crypto, while regulators argue it’s necessary to protect investors, particularly after the collapse of high-profile crypto companies like FTX.”
A checking account is a liability to a bank because it must be prepared to pay out the balance if the account holder decides to withdraw. Forcing banks to treat crypto holdings as liabilities makes the bank hold more in reserves in order to be better prepared for a bank run.
This is my favorite part "As announced on March 15, 2020, the Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions."