Trump picks former Bitfury exec Jonathan Gould to lead the OCC, signaling ongoing shift to crypto-friendly regulators

President Donald Trump has reportedly tapped former blockchain executive Jonathan Gould to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. 

Gould was previously chief legal officer at Bitfury and, before that, was senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel at the OCC, which regulates and supervises the national banks and federal savings associations. 

Gould will be in "prime position to hit the ground running," said Ron Hammond, senior director of government relations at the Blockchain Association. Gould will also likely emulate former Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks' leadership. Brooks was, for only a few months, CEO of Binance.US. 

"Also his expertise in crypto ensures the OCC will be well positioned to substantively engage with Congress as they begin to move legislation around stablecoins and market structure," Hammond said.

Trump has selected several crypto-friendly regulators to lead federal agencies, including Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission and, more recently, plans to nominate Brian Quintenz, head of global policy at a16z crypto, to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This comes as he also plans to combine the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with the OCC to be under the Treasury Department, according to The Wall Street Journal. Change is also underway at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been heavily criticized by the Trump administration. Over the weekend, acting head of the agency Russell Vought reportedly instructed employees to "cease all supervision and examination activity" and pause enforcement actions.

Jonathan McKernan, who had been at the FDIC until this week, was nominated to lead the CFPB on Tuesday, according to WSJ. McKernan was previously counsel to former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and was a senior policy advisor at the Department of the Treasury.