A New Appointment from the USA to Delight the Cryptocurrency World! Appointed to a Critical Position

The U.S. Senate approved the appointment of former blockchain company executive Jonathan Gould as head of the Office of Currency Control (OCC) by a vote of 50 to 45. Following the approval, the file was sent to President Donald Trump for final signature.

Gould had previously served as the chief legal officer at Bitfury, a company that developed blockchain technology. Before this role, he worked as a senior vice president and chief legal officer at OCC. Trump had nominated Gould for the OCC Chairmanship in February.

In a procedural poll conducted before the vote, crypto advocate Senator Cynthia Lummis voted against Gould's nomination. According to Punchbowl News reporter Brendan Pedersen, Lummis's spokesperson stated that the senator wanted to have further discussions with Gould regarding stablecoin regulations and the federal banking laws superseding state laws. However, Lummis supported Gould's confirmation by casting a "yes" vote in the final ballot.

Gould's presidential approval coincides with a period when the U.S. Congress has begun to move quickly on cryptocurrency regulations. As "Crypto Week" is announced for next week, the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin bill, will be discussed in the House of Representatives. The bill aims to require stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similar liquid assets, mandate annual audits for issuers with a market capitalization exceeding $50 billion, and introduce rules for foreign stablecoin issuers.

OCC continued to take crypto-friendly steps throughout 2025. The institution clarified that U.S. banks could trade in crypto assets in their own name and announced that it would remove the "reputational risk" statements from its guidelines.