Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) Definition

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is an international standards-setting and financial stability authority made up of 45 members representing 28 countries from around the world.

Central Bank and similar governing bodies form the membership group.

The Committee, as it’s also known as, uses an informal forum to discuss and agree on the standards used by banks around the world regarding capital, liquidity, and funding, although what they do agree on doesn’t actually become regulation or law.

The Committee is primarily concerned with understanding bank supervisory issues and coming up with ways to improve banking regulation worldwide.

Regarding cryptocurrency asset regulation, the Committee makes suggestions to banks on how to limit their exposure to crypto asset risk, in the form of varying capital requirements for different types of cryptocurrencies, such as stablecoins, or tokenized sticks, or non-stablecoin not-tokenized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins.

The original 10 members included Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United State.

Related Terms

Immutability

A core feature of blockchains that makes their ledgers, the data record of transactions, unchangeable and unalterable. Immutability drives the trustworthiness and integrity of blockchain data as chain transactions and rulesets are protected from fraud, hacking and other wrongdoing.

Market Capitalization (Market Cap)

Market Capitalization (Market Cap) is a total dollar value given to an asset (like Bitcoin), or an entire asset class (all cryptocurrencies), calculated by taking that asset’s circulating supply and multiplying it by the market price of that asset.

Token

A Token is a digital asset that operates on a parent blockchain or on another digital asset’s blockchain because it doesn’t have a blockchain of its own. The term “token” also tends to describe almost all other cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies in existence today. Tokens have multiple purposes and use cases.

Dump

When a lot of selling of a cryptocurrency takes place all at once. This can happen across a single cryptocurrency, an entire sector like DeFi, Gaming, or Metaverse, with an entire ecosystem like Ethereum, or with all cryptocurrencies simultaneously. The dump usually causes sharp spikes down in price, often causing more investors and traders to sell off, reinforcing the selling pressure.

Digital Currency

Digital Currency, also called digital cash, digital money, or virtual currency is any form of currency or money-like asset that’s only available in purely digital or electronic form.