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(Bloomberg) -- Fifth Third Bancorp. began forging relationships with crypto companies about five years ago, but held off on major investments until regulation became clearer. That moment has arrived, according to the bank’s head of strategy.

The firm is considering ways it can do more crypto business after building a small portfolio of customers which use its deposit accounts and payments capabilities for operations like sending payroll and receiving revenue, chief strategy officer Ben Hoffman said.

The Cincinnati-based lender is also exploring using stablecoins to facilitate cross-border transactions, helping cut costs and make the process of transmitting value more efficient, according to Hoffman. The company, which has significant payments operations, would additionally like to connect with other payments rails that allow consumers to pay for purchases with crypto and trade digital assets.

Since around 2020, Fifth Third has been designing offerings for crypto firms, but like other banks was waiting for clarification in regulations before making big moves, according to Hoffman. Since Donald Trump took power, his administration has enabled policies that benefit the industry and appointed digital-asset advocates to key government positions while also pursuing his own crypto businesses.

“It became clear that this was the right time to engage and fortunately we’ve had a team of folks actively studying and tinkering in this space,” Hoffman said in an interview.

Banking sentiment on the asset class had also soured amid the fallout from the failure of crypto exchange FTX in 2022, which ultimately led to the demise of crypto-friendly lender Silvergate. Now, with the industry maturing, some of America’s largest banks are plotting how to win more business under the more relaxed regime.

In early March, Office of the Comptroller Currency acting head Rodney Hood clarified that banks can engage in crypto-asset custody, certain stablecoin activities, and using blockchain technology for payments — activities which previously required they get written approval.

Hoffman said Fifth Third, which has more than $200 billion of assets and is primarily regulated by the OCC, has a team of full-time employees dedicated to digital assets. They collaborate with each business line and corporate functions such as treasury, liquidity management and compliance.

It’s a “whole bank effort,” he said.