During his campaign and early presidency, Donald Trump made bold promises about supporting cryptocurrency. Now, with Executive Order 14178, he has taken a concrete step toward reshaping U.S. digital asset policy. Titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” this order explicitly protects the right to access and use public blockchain networks for lawful purposes without government persecution.
In a quiet but paradigm-shifting move, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has rescinded Interpretive Letter 1179 (November 18, 2021) and reaffirmed that national banks and federal savings associations may engage in crypto-asset custody, operate distributed ledger (DLT) infrastructure, and issue stablecoins under specific regulatory conditions. The OCC's March 7, 2025, policy update clarifies these permissions, rolling back previous restrictions on tokenized deposit issuance, blockchain transaction validation, and digital asset settlement mechanisms (OCC, 2025).