Trump crypto policy moved forward this week as President Trump pressed Congress to break the Clarity Act deadlock during a White House meeting with crypto executives. The administration is advancing executive and agency actions at the same time, which gives banks, stablecoin companies, and token startups a nearer-term rulebook even as lawmakers stay stuck.
White House meeting with crypto executives
Roughly two dozen attendees were in the room on Wednesday, including Paul Atkins, Mike Selig, the chief executives of Coinbase and Robinhood, Tyler Winklevoss, and Cameron Winklevoss. The meeting put the administration’s priorities in one place, and it showed where pressure is now landing: on agencies that can move without waiting for the Senate.
The Clarity Act remains hung up over disputed ethics language designed to prevent government officials from profiting off digital assets. That dispute leaves the policy fight split between legislation and regulation, with the White House pushing one track while Congress slows the other.
Jonathan Gould sets the OCC pace
At the Wyoming Blockchain Summit on Wednesday, Jonathan Gould said the OCC plans to finalize federal rules for stablecoins by November and begin processing crypto license applications in January. He also said the OCC received 40 applications for new bank charters over the past 18 months, and more than half involved some form of digital asset activity, which he described as an eightfold increase from the prior administration.
“We are working with great speed here,” Gould said, and he added, “It is becoming ordinary course to involve and integrate payment stablecoins, etc. in the business plans that we are now seeing presented to the OCC for consideration.” The timetable matters because November leaves only a short gap before January, so banks and stablecoin firms now have a narrow window to line up documentation, compliance planning, and product design before the OCC starts taking applications.
Gould also said, “Crypto is part of the business of banking, and we have been making sure that that is the case through our actions, both on the chartering front and through legal interpretations.” The OCC proposed preventing stablecoin companies from using loopholes to pay interest to their users, so firms that had counted on yield-style features may have to adjust how they structure customer incentives.
SEC proposal and bank pressure
Also this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that would allow startups to raise capital through tokens without triggering traditional securities registration. Jaret Seiberg of TD Cowen said, “This is critical for payment stablecoin issuance,” and he said the proposal “provides a roadmap not just for how one can use tokens to raise capital but also how tokens can lose their designation as securities if the project becomes decentralized.”
That is the practical split right now: one side of Washington is still arguing over ethics language in the Clarity Act, while the White House, the OCC, and the Securities and Exchange Commission are already setting operating rules for banks, stablecoin issuers, and founders who want to use tokens to fund projects. For readers inside those businesses, the question is no longer whether policy is moving; it is which rulebook lands first and how much of their product plan survives the final version.
Scott Bessent Defends $1.4 Billion Trump Crypto Earnings in CBS News Interview sits in the background of the same political fight, but the immediate issue is narrower: whether Congress breaks the deadlock or regulators keep writing the rules one agency at a time.
The unresolved question is whether Congress will resolve the ethics dispute and advance the Clarity Act, or whether the administration’s agency-led approach will keep defining Trump crypto policy through November and January.
