Pierre Rochard’s warning about the Bitcoin gap in the Basel III revision

Pierre Rochard’s warning about a Bitcoin gap in the Basel III revision

Bitcoin Bond Company CEO Pierre Rochard said he is warning that U.S. regulators cannot quietly decide how banks should handle Bitcoin during the Basel III revisions without clearly disclosing the legal basis as well as the supporting data.

According to Rochard, if the new regulatory framework does not transparently explain how to classify and apply risk to digital assets—especially Bitcoin—banks will have to deal with operational and compliance ambiguity. He believes this is not only a problem related to capital management mechanics, but also has a direct impact on the ability of financial institutions to participate in the digital asset market.

Basel III has long been the set of standards that banks around the world use to assess capital adequacy. However, as Bitcoin and other digital assets appear more and more often on the balance sheets of financial institutions, how regulators define, measure, and apply risk weights to them has become a controversial topic.

Concerns about how the rules are interpreted

Rochard emphasized that a change with such a major impact cannot be implemented in a “handed-down” manner. In his view, if regulators want to adjust how banks approach Bitcoin, they need to clearly lay out the evaluation criteria, empirical evidence, and the rationale behind each new requirement.

He warned that a lack of transparency could set a bad precedent, forcing financial institutions to guess their compliance obligations. This would not only increase legal costs, but could also hinder the development of Bitcoin-related financial products in the U.S.

Bitcoin and the problem of bank risk management

Against the backdrop of traditional banks beginning to pay more attention to digital assets, how regulators define the risk framework for Bitcoin will directly affect how readily the industry adopts it. If capital requirements are tightened too much, banks may be more hesitant to provide services related to digital money.

On the other hand, a clear regulatory framework with a solid basis would help financial institutions plan better, thereby reducing uncertainty in the market. That is why Rochard believes the Basel III revision needs to be released transparently rather than leaving gaps that cause the market to interpret things for itself.

Impact on the digital asset market

Analysts say that decisions by U.S. regulators not only affect domestic banks, but could also create ripple effects in the global market. If the U.S. sets overly strict standards, other countries may look to them or adopt similar approaches.

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin-supporting community expects policymakers to build a more balanced regulatory framework—one that both ensures system safety and does not choke off financial innovation. The Basel III debate is therefore becoming a new hotspot in the story of digital asset regulation.