OCC: “Crypto is part of the business of banking”. Stablecoins bring us “back to the future”

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould declared that “crypto is part of the business of banking” at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium yesterday, outlining the OCC’s approach to integrating digital assets into the federal banking system. Gould said the OCC is targeting final stablecoin rules by November, which would allow it to begin processing stablecoin issuer applications in the new year. He drew a parallel between the OCC’s forthcoming role supervising stablecoin reserves under the GENIUS Act and its original mission in the 1860s of ensuring the quality of reserves backing national bank notes. “The GENIUS act is exceedingly exciting for us because it brings us back to the future of doing what we were doing back in the 1860s when we were first created.”

Over the past 18 months the OCC has received 40 bank charter applications, with 23 of the business plans including some kind of digital asset activity. Gould described this as an eightfold increase over the Biden administration. During the four years of the Biden administration there were a total of 18 applications and eight approvals (excluding one 2021 approval before Biden’s inauguration), with activity trailing off to a single application in 2024 and zero approvals.