President Trump pushed Congress on Wednesday to break its deadlock on the Clarity Act even as his administration moved ahead with a fresh round of crypto policy. The White House meeting with crypto executives came the same day Jonathan Gould said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency plans to finalize federal stablecoin rules by November and start processing crypto license applications in January.
The timing matters because Washington is trying to set the rules for an industry that still lacks a broad law. Roughly two dozen people were at the White House meeting, including Paul Atkins, Mike Selig, the chief executives of Coinbase and Robinhood, and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, while the Securities and Exchange Commission also proposed rules this week that would let startups raise capital through tokens without triggering traditional securities registration.
That flurry of action follows the July 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act, which created the first federal stablecoin framework. Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the US dollar and backed one-to-one by high-quality liquid assets such as cash and short-term Treasurys, and Gould said the OCC would use public comments to revise its proposal before issuing a final rule. He also said the agency received 40 charter applications over the past 18 months, more than half tied to digital asset activity, an eightfold increase from the prior administration.
The Senate, though, has not moved in step. The Clarity Act remains stuck over disputed ethics language meant to stop government officials from profiting off digital assets, which leaves the White House and federal agencies pushing ahead with executive action while the broader bill sits in limbo. Gould underscored that split when he said crypto is part of the business of banking and that the OCC has been making that clear through chartering decisions and legal interpretations.
The next marker is November, when the OCC says its stablecoin rule should be finished, followed by January, when it plans to begin taking crypto license applications. Jaret Seiberg called the SEC proposal “critical for payment stablecoin issuance” and said it could give the market a roadmap for token fundraising and for tokens to lose securities status if a project becomes decentralized, but the harder question is whether Congress can still catch up to regulators already moving.
