Trump’s Key Financial Regulation Nominations Include Crypto Advocate
President Donald Trump is nearing the completion of his selections for pivotal financial regulation positions that will shape the future oversight of the cryptocurrency industry. Among these nominations is attorney Jonathan Gould, who has been proposed to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which supervises U.S. national banks.
The widely circulated White House nominations document confirms that Trump has chosen Gould, a partner at the prominent law firm Jones Day, who previously served as a top lawyer at the OCC and has experience in the cryptocurrency sector. Reports indicate that Trump will also nominate Jonathan McKernan of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), suggesting that the nomination slate is almost finalized.
Before joining Jones Day, Gould briefly held the role of chief legal officer at blockchain technology company Bitfury after his tenure at the OCC, where he was senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel during Trump’s first term. At Bitfury, he worked under CEO Brian Brooks, who was appointed by Trump as the acting comptroller of the OCC and was also a candidate for a permanent position. During Brooks’ time at the OCC, he focused on opening U.S. banking to cryptocurrency firms, notably facilitating the elevation of Anchorage Digital as the first and only crypto bank to receive a charter from the agency. The industry now awaits to see if Gould will continue this progressive trajectory.
According to Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at TD Cowen, “For crypto, we believe Gould could seek to revive the concept of a limited-purpose national bank charter. This could pave the way for banks that specialize in cryptocurrency services. We also anticipate that he would allow banks to engage more actively with cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins.”
The interim comptroller, Rodney Hood, a former Republican leader of the National Credit Union Administration, is currently filling the role and would be succeeded by Gould, pending his Senate confirmation. Temporary Republican appointees like Hood are now at the helm of most financial regulatory agencies, including the OCC and FDIC, as well as the consumer watchdog, CFPB, and the two primary market regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
At the CFPB, the Trump administration’s strategy to diminish the agency’s influence, highlighted by the appointment of Russ Vought as its interim leader, has sparked significant backlash from congressional Democrats. Trump has now identified McKernan as his preferred candidate to take over from Vought. McKernan, a Republican member of the FDIC, previously served as a staffer for former Senator Pat Toomey, who spearheaded an early but unsuccessful effort to regulate stablecoins in the United States.
Ian Katz, a seasoned analyst in financial regulation, remarked on the “conventional” choice of Gould for the OCC and the recent appointments of permanent leaders for the CFTC and CFPB, suggesting that these selections are unlikely to provoke dissent among the U.S. senators tasked with evaluating their nominations. The relatively stable choices reflect Trump’s previous model for financial regulators during his initial term, characterized by a lack of dramatic surprises. Unlike some of his more controversial personnel selections in other areas, the nominees are experienced professionals without political extremes. This includes the selection of Paul Atkins, a longtime securities consultant and former commissioner, to lead the SEC. Notably, nearly all the nominated individuals — both temporary and permanent — have backgrounds in cryptocurrency or have shown support for the industry.
It is important to note that all nominees must receive Senate confirmation, a process that can take several months and sometimes results in failed confirmations, leaving agencies with acting heads, as was the case with the OCC during the Biden administration. In addition, Trump has designated Brian Quintenz, a former commissioner, to lead the CFTC, where current Commissioner Caroline Pham has been acting as chairman and implementing significant changes to the agency’s operations. So far, Pham and other acting leaders have initiated efforts to reshape the cryptocurrency policy established during the Biden era.
