OCC targets November stablecoin rules as Comptroller declares crypto core to banking

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould used an appearance at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to frame digital assets as a mainstream component of federally supervised banking, not a peripheral experiment. Speaking on 19 August, Gould confirmed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is aiming to finalise stablecoin rules by November, with charter applications from stablecoin issuers expected to begin flowing through the pipeline in early 2026.

Gould drew an institutional history line between the OCC’s founding mandate in the 1860s, when it monitored the reserve quality backing national bank notes, and its prospective role supervising stablecoin reserves under the GENIUS Act. That framing is deliberate: it positions stablecoin oversight as a restoration of core competency rather than a regulatory stretch. The GENIUS Act, still working through the legislative process, would hand the OCC a supervisory role over payment stablecoin reserves, and Gould described it as “exceedingly exciting” for that reason.

The application data adds texture to the policy signal. Over the 18 months prior to the symposium, the OCC received 40 bank charter applications, with 23 of those business plans incorporating some form of digital asset activity. Gould characterised that as an eightfold increase relative to the Biden administration’s pace, during which 18 applications and eight approvals were recorded across four years, activity that had dwindled to a single application in 2024 and zero approvals. Payment stablecoins, Gould noted, are now appearing routinely in incoming business plans, which he read as a directional indicator rather than an outlier trend.