Author
Ahmed Balaha
Author
Share
The wall between Wall Street and crypto is coming down under Trump Administration.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould has reportedly greenlighted major crypto firms including Ripple and Crypto.com to pursue national banking charters. He is actively encouraging payment technology companies to enter the federal banking system.
On top of that, Gould is moving to rescind Biden-era guidance that forced banks to seek supervisory approval before touching digital assets. The Chokepoint 2.0 era is effectively over.
For traders this is not just regulatory housekeeping. Access to Federal Reserve payment rails and the ability to hold direct deposits is the single biggest bottleneck keeping institutional capital out of crypto.
That bottleneck is being removed.
- Jonathan Gould is actively inviting crypto firms like Ripple and Crypto.com to apply for national banking charters.
- The move rescinds 2021 guidance requiring “supervisory nonobjection,” streamlining custody and stablecoin operations.
- Traditional banks are pushing back, arguing these new entrants will bypass strict capital requirements while accessing Fed payment rails.
What the Trump Administration’s Banking Crypto Push Actually Involves
The OCC’s old approach was simple. Want to touch crypto? Get written permission first. That nonobjection requirement acted as a pocket veto, killing bank-crypto partnerships before they started.
Gould is flipping the default. Permissible unless prohibited. Firms like Ripple can now build banks directly, bypass third-party intermediaries, and settle transactions through the Federal Reserve via FedNow or Fedwire. Lower costs. Faster settlement. No middleman.
The policy aligns with the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which mandates a stablecoin integration report by July 2025. The OCC is not waiting for legislation. It is using existing authority to front-run the process.
The timing is driven by two things. Political capital and competitive panic.
The crypto industry spent over $250 million electing pro-innovation candidates in 2024. With up to 278 pro-crypto members now in Congress, the political will to obstruct has evaporated. Agencies are racing to align.
The offshore threat is the other pressure point. Stablecoin liquidity has been bleeding to jurisdictions with clearer rules. The EU’s MiCA framework is moving fast. The OCC is trying to onshore that liquidity before Europe captures it permanently.
The administration is not being subtle about any of this. The wall is coming down fast.
The $3 Trillion Opportunity — and the Risk Banks Face
The stakes for traditional banks are existential.
Crypto firms with national charters are no longer just clients. They become direct competitors for deposits. Five major regional banks already saw this coming and launched the Cari Network, a private blockchain payment rail, specifically to defend their settlement market share.
The prize everyone is fighting over is a projected $3 trillion stablecoin market by 2030. Banks that cannot custody crypto or settle stablecoin payments directly will lose the fastest growing segment of the payments industry to fintech challengers. That is not a small loss.
The risk for crypto is the flipside of the same coin. A regulatory backlash is possible. The banking lobby is already arguing that crypto banks will not face the same capital requirements as traditional lenders. If Congress moves to level the playing field too aggressively, the utility of these new charters gets strangled before it can be realized.
The green light is on. But the road still has obstacles.
Discover: The best new crypto in the world
