The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has set a November target for completing its GENIUS Act regulations after receiving industry feedback on its proposed stablecoin framework.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported in an Aug. 19 X post that Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould disclosed the timetable during the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, an event presented by SALT and Kraken in Jackson Hole.

According to Terrett, Gould said the OCC would adjust the final regulations in response to comments from cryptocurrency companies and other industry participants. Her post did not identify which requirements the agency may revise or whether the November target applies to every rule that the OCC must issue under the GENIUS Act.

Gould also said the agency’s digital asset approval activity had increased eightfold compared with the Biden administration, according to the post. Terrett did not specify whether he was referring to charter approvals, licensing decisions, or another category of regulatory action.

Addressing the former administration’s approach, Gould reportedly described efforts to remove risk from the banking system as “extremely shortsighted.” The comptroller has previously argued that regulators should manage financial risks instead of trying to prevent banks from entering lawful business areas.

OCC rules would govern the stablecoin lifecycle

The OCC released its main GENIUS Act proposal on Feb. 25 before the notice appeared in the Federal Register on March 2. A 60-day comment period followed, giving banks, stablecoin companies, and other interested parties until May 1 to respond.

As crypto.news previously reported, the proposal covers the full operating cycle of a payment stablecoin, including issuance, reserve management, redemption, supervision, and the process for closing an issuer.

Under the proposed framework, issuers supervised by the OCC would have to maintain eligible reserve assets and redeem stablecoins at par. The draft also contains requirements for liquidity, risk controls, audits, reports, custody, and regulatory examinations.

Application procedures would apply to nonbank companies seeking recognition as federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers. Separate provisions cover subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, certain state-qualified issuers under OCC authority, and foreign issuers seeking access to the American market.

The agency also proposed a capital and operational backstop, although the final amount and structure could change following public feedback. Additional amendments would place stablecoin issuers within existing OCC rules covering capital standards, assessments, enforcement proceedings, and corrective action.

Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and Office of Foreign Assets Control requirements were excluded from the February proposal. The OCC said it would handle the missing provisions through separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department.

During June, the agency issued proposals addressing anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and sanctions risk management for permitted stablecoin issuers. Another proposal covering customer identification remains open for comments through Aug. 21, according to the OCC’s rulemaking tracker.

November target follows a missed statutory deadline

President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, creating the first federal US framework written specifically for payment stablecoins.

The law instructed federal regulators to issue implementing regulations within one year. However, the statutory deadline passed on July 18, 2026, without the OCC, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or National Credit Union Administration completing all required rules.

Ten proposed rulemakings were pending across federal agencies when the deadline expired, with several comment periods scheduled to continue beyond July. Regulators have not announced a common date for completing the remaining measures.

Under the statute, the payment stablecoin framework takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after the primary federal regulators issue final implementing rules, whichever comes first. Finalizing the OCC’s proposal in November would not independently start the 120-day period unless the other responsible agencies also complete their regulations.

The law generally restricts US payment stablecoin issuance to permitted issuers. Digital asset service providers will also be unable to offer or sell noncompliant payment stablecoins to American customers once the applicable provisions take effect.

Federal and state regulators will divide responsibility according to the issuer’s structure. The OCC will oversee federally qualified nonbank issuers, stablecoin-issuing subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, and certain state-qualified issuers that come under its authority.

Foreign issuers face another approval route before US platforms can distribute their stablecoins. The GENIUS Act requires them to operate under a comparable regulatory system and meet conditions involving reserves, supervision, and US regulatory access.

Treasury proposal defines access to US customers

Separate regulations proposed by the Treasury Department on Aug. 17 address when payment stablecoins are issued, offered, or sold in the United States. The definitions will help determine when an issuer requires a federal or state license and when a platform becomes subject to distribution restrictions.

Treasury also proposed standards for digital asset service providers that make foreign-issued stablecoins available to American users. The department opened the proposal for public comment and said responses would help it clarify the territorial reach of the law.

Under the proposal, companies would generally need authorization when their activities involve US customers or take place within the country. Treasury also requested feedback on transactions involving intermediaries, decentralized systems, and platforms that may serve customers in several jurisdictions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department was working to implement the framework enacted by Congress while accepting comments from businesses and other interested parties. The proposal does not replace the OCC rule because the two measures cover different parts of the GENIUS Act.

OCC crypto charter applications have increased

The November timetable comes as the OCC processes more applications from companies planning to provide digital asset services under federal banking supervision.

In August, the agency said it had received 40 de novo bank applications during the previous 18 months, including proposed national trust banks. Gould compared the total with an annual average of fewer than four charter applications between 2011 and 2024.

The OCC’s public licensing tracker recently listed 13 pending digital asset applications. Applicants included Payward National Trust Company, Revolut Bank US, EDX Trust, Agora National Trust Bank, and PAYO Digital Bank.

As reported earlier in August, Gould said companies conducting legally permitted activities should have a path into the federal banking system. The OCC has said it often decides complete charter applications within 120 days, although preliminary approval does not authorize an institution to open.

Several cryptocurrency companies have received conditional national trust bank approvals since December 2025. The applicants have included Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets, while other companies have continued through the application process.

National trust banks can provide custody, fiduciary, settlement, and asset-servicing functions under OCC supervision. Their charters do not automatically allow them to accept ordinary customer deposits or provide conventional loans in the same manner as full-service commercial banks.

On Aug. 14, the OCC conditionally approved World Liberty Financial’s application to establish World Liberty Trust Company. The proposed institution would issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin, manage its reserves, and provide custody services to institutional clients.

Preliminary approval allows World Liberty to organize the trust bank but does not permit it to begin operations. According to the OCC’s decision, the company must satisfy its preopening requirements, maintain at least $20 million in eligible capital, apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock, and receive written authorization before opening.

Burnham aims to bridge relations between the two nations

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its highest levels since the start of June after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as markets reacted to a US government liquidity move.

Key points:

• Bitcoin spikes 6% on the day to hit $69,749, its highest level since June 2.
• The US Treasury plans to at least double the maximum size of debt buyback operations to $4 billion. This might fuel a broader risk-asset rally.
• A lack of stablecoin liquidity on exchanges means that BTC price upside remains limited, says Bitfinex. Stablecoin liquidity has decreased by $14 billion since May.

Bitcoin surges as US bond yields fall on buyback plan

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD passing $69,700 on Bitstamp, up 6% on the day.

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US stock markets opened higher after the US Treasury Department announced that it would at least double the level of government debt buybacks, from $2 billion to a minimum of $4 billion per operation, beginning on Sept. 9. 

The US 30-year bond yield, which had hit its highest level in nearly 20 years on Tuesday, fell immediately on the news and was at 5.19% at the time of writing, down 9bps.

“This increase in buyback operation sizes reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations,” an official press release stated.

US 30-year bond yields one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Increased debt buybacks mean that the US government will add liquidity as a buyer to the longer-term debt market. Earlier, analysts pointed to increasing corporate debt, especially in the AI sector, as one motivator of the yield surge. 

“This is NOT a debt paydown, it is just a rearrangement of the maturity schedule of Treasuries,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at One Point BFG Wealth Partners, said, quoted by CNBC.

The announcement comes as US national debt approaches the symbolic milestone of $40 trillion. On Tuesday, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted that interest payments on the debt pile had reached $1.4 trillion over the past 12 months alone, tripling since 2020.

“If rates remain stable, interest payments are set to rise to $1.7 trillion by November 2028,” it forecast in a post on X alongside data from Bank of America.

US Treasury interest payment data. Source: The Kobeissi Letter on X.com

Stablecoin liquidity keeping Bitcoin rebound in check: Bitfinex

Discussing current BTC price strength versus the S&P 500, which hit new all-time highs last week, crypto exchange Bitfinex pointed to Bitcoin’s own liquidity problem. Stablecoin supplies on exchanges, it noted, had decreased by $14 billion since May.

Related: Bitcoin has ‘largely purged’ froth that preceded 50% drop from $126K: BlackRock

“Until stablecoin supply turns, the rally stays unfunded,” it told X followers.

Stablecoin liquidity acts as “dry powder” waiting on the sidelines to be deployed into cryptoassets, and its absence reflects a belief among investors that major opportunities are not yet imminent.

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant’s Stablecoin Supply Ratio (SSR) indicator, which measures Bitcoin’s market cap relative to the aggregate stablecoin market cap, reflects tightening liquidity conditions over the past six weeks in particular.

A higher SSR means that stablecoin liquidity is leaving exchanges, and since June 30, it has risen from 9.82 to 11.69. The highest SSR reading of 2026 was observed on Jan. 14 at 12.83.

Bitcoin SSR data. Source: CryptoQuant

XRP’s increased network activity contrasts with weak price momentum as EX DeFi promotes cloud mining as an alternative way for holders to seek passive income.

XRP’s price momentum has recently slowed, hovering around the $1 mark; however, a surge in network activity — specifically a more than 24% increase in active addresses — has helped bolster investor sentiment.

As traders continue to close out positions, XRP faces persistent selling pressure, keeping the asset’s price near recent lows.

With market momentum waning and short sellers gaining dominance due to XRP’s lackluster price performance, investors are increasingly seeking more sustainable ways to generate returns from their holdings without frequent trading or exposure to high market volatility.

Against this backdrop, the EX DeFi cloud mining platform offers XRP holders a new avenue to earn passive income without having to sell their digital assets. Whether someone is a novice or a seasoned investor, they can easily participate and earn up to $10,000 in passive income.

XRP active addresses jump 24.1% in 24 hours; network activity heats up

According to the latest on-chain data, the number of active XRP addresses rose from 27,665 to 34,318 within a 24-hour period — an increase of approximately 6,653, or 24.1%. Despite this growth in daily active addresses, the price of XRP remained largely unaffected.

Daily active addresses on the XRP Ledger have recently surged to nearly 50,000 — a two-month high. Given the market’s focus on the divergence between price performance and network activity, XRP remains a key point of interest for investors.

How long until XRP returns to $2?

After recently dipping below the $1 mark, XRP’s price has continued to fluctuate around this critical level, raising concerns among some holders regarding its future trajectory.

However, in contrast to the sluggish price action, XRP’s network activity remains robust. The rapid increase in active addresses indicates that, even amidst cautious investor sentiment, a significant number of users continue to actively engage with the XRP network. If network usage remains high and translates into actual demand, it could provide support for future price performance. For long-term XRP holders, rather than simply waiting for the price to rise above $2, an increasing number of investors are seeking more diversified ways to generate yield from their digital assets.

EX DeFi: Another yield-generating avenue for XRP investors

Amidst heightened market volatility, more XRP investors are turning to EX DeFi. They aim to boost the returns on their XRP holdings by participating in diversified passive income streams through cloud mining.

Compared to high-volatility investment methods like leveraged trading, cloud mining offers XRP holders a way to participate that significantly reduces management costs associated with electricity and equipment maintenance. Users can easily earn passive income by selecting cloud mining contracts tailored to their needs, without the burden of purchasing mining hardware or covering maintenance expenses.

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Summary

Although XRP’s price has recently hovered around the $1 mark, network activity has seen a significant rebound. This indicates that investor usage of XRP remains high, providing a level of support for future price appreciation.

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US President Donald Trump renewed his push for passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act as the Senate remains in recess, urging lawmakers to advance what he described as a “fair version” of the bill to keep the United States “ahead of China.” The proposal, which passed the House of Representatives in July 2025, has been stuck in the Senate for months amid disputes over how certain tokenized products and incentives should be treated, as well as concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

Speaking at a Wednesday press conference alongside leading crypto executives—including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss—Trump framed the effort as a competitiveness issue and linked it to broader US regulatory credibility. Armstrong, who spoke after Trump and heads of US regulatory agencies, argued that the bill would provide long-lasting policy certainty for the industry.

Key takeaways

• Trump urged Congress to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act while the Senate is in recess, positioning the legislation as a way to maintain US leadership.
• CLARITY passed the House in July 2025 but remains stalled in the Senate amid concerns including tokenized equities, stablecoin rewards, and ethics-related conflict of interest questions.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the bill could gain “more than 60 votes” if the Senate addresses a cloture motion expected on Sept. 15.
• Sen. Ruben Gallego criticized the idea of presidentially driven “limits,” arguing regulatory thresholds must be set by Congress and the White House, not by the president unilaterally.
• Meanwhile, regulators appear to be moving without waiting for CLARITY—both the SEC’s proposed safe-harbor approach and upcoming CFTC discussions point to continued rulemaking activity.

Trump presses for CLARITY despite Senate recess

At the center of the Wednesday remarks was the CLARITY Act, a market-structure proposal that cleared the House in July 2025. Trump emphasized urgency, telling reporters that members of Congress should act to keep US policy “ahead of China.” His comments came after he previously pushed lawmakers toward CLARITY in July, shortly after the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, which Trump cited as a reason to advance the measure.

Trump’s call also referenced a belief that the bill is politically broad. After Armstrong’s remarks, Trump said it was “very bipartisan” and added that “Lot of Democrats support.”

Armstrong, responding to the president and regulatory leadership, argued the legislation would help make crypto rules durable over time. He characterized CLARITY as something that could remain effective for “decades and decades to come,” rather than producing short-lived regulatory patchwork.

Armstrong’s vote-count expectations and the Sept. 15 cloture clock

Armstrong’s remarks offered the most specific legislative pathway in the briefing. He suggested that CLARITY could ultimately command significant Senate support—speculating the bill could have “more than 60 votes”—if senators address the cloture motion scheduled for Sept. 15.

That framing matters for market participants because cloture is often the key procedural hurdle for bringing controversial legislation to the floor. If senators are willing to move through cloture, the bill’s prospects can change quickly from a stalled, committee-level dispute to a potentially binding floor vote.

Even so, the broader political question remains unresolved: the bill’s pace and potential amendments appear tightly linked to contested areas in the text.

What’s been holding CLARITY up

According to the coverage of the bill’s status, CLARITY has stalled in the Senate for months. The underlying reasons include concerns about tokenized equities, stablecoin rewards, and ethics provisions—particularly worries that the Trump family’s business interests could create conflicts of interest with aspects of the crypto industry.

Those ethics concerns resurfaced in response to Trump’s Wednesday framing. According to Senator Ruben Gallego, the debate should not be reduced to what the president thinks is “fair.” At the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Gallego said that limiting language or regulatory thresholds is not something the president should unilaterally determine.

“The president is agreeing to some limitation. It’s not his place to agree. It’s the place of the Congress, the Senate and then the White House […] the president doesn’t just get to decide what level of regulation he gets.“

Gallego’s position underscores a core tension around the bill: while industry leaders and the White House are pressing for certainty, critics argue the political negotiation must be grounded in legislative authority and ethics safeguards rather than executive preferences.

Trump has previously brought crypto executives to the White House, including a summit focused on regulation in March 2025 and a separate signing ceremony tied to legislation described in earlier coverage as the GENIUS stablecoin bill in July 2025.

Regulators keep moving as CLARITY waits

While CLARITY waits for Senate action, regulatory activity has not paused. The Wednesday press conference occurred one day before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was scheduled to hold an Innovation Advisory Committee meeting. CFTC Chair Michael Selig said at the time that the agency would explore moving forward on crypto regulations at the meeting, noting that Congress would not return to session for another month.

At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been working on its own rulemaking direction. Earlier coverage described the SEC as proposing crypto rules designed to provide companies a safe harbor from tokens being treated as “investment contracts,” along with certain exemptions for token issuance. The timing suggests that, even if CLARITY stalls, regulators may still pursue workable compliance pathways through separate legal theories and regulatory frameworks.

For investors and exchanges, the key takeaway is that policy uncertainty may not be resolved by CLARITY alone in the near term. Instead, the US regulatory landscape could evolve through overlapping approaches: market-structure legislation moving procedurally in Congress, and agency rulemaking continuing through SEC and CFTC initiatives.

In practical terms, that means market participants may need to plan for both possibilities at once—preparing compliance strategies that can function under existing frameworks while watching how CLARITY’s stalled provisions could be amended to address the disputes currently slowing the Senate.

With a Sept. 15 procedural step potentially shaping CLARITY’s legislative momentum, and regulators scheduled to continue acting independently, the coming weeks will likely show whether Washington can align on a unified framework—or whether the US ends up with parallel, partially overlapping rule tracks until Congress finally settles the core disagreements.

Update (Aug. 19, 8:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to clarify that Lois Frankel won the Democratic primary in Florida’s 23rd congressional district and not re-election.

Four of the five candidates supported by ads funded by the cryptocurrency-aligned political action committee (PAC) Fairshake won their primaries or otherwise advanced on Tuesday, potentially a bellwether for the industry’s influence in the 2026 midterm elections.

On Tuesday, Democratic and Republican candidates supported by media funded by the Fairshake-affiliated PACs Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs, respectively, notched wins across three US states. Altogether, the PACs spent about $3.6 million on House and Senate races in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming.

Democrat Lois Frankel won her primary in Florida’s 23rd congressional district after Protect Progress spent more than $150,000 on supportive media. Defend American Jobs also spent a combined $1.5 million on ads to support Republican Nick Begich in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, Republican candidate Sydney Gruters in Florida’s 16th congressional district and Representative Harriet Hageman for the US Senate in Wyoming. Gruters and Hageman won their primaries, while Begich is expected to advance in Alaska.

All four candidates will likely go on to face challengers in the 2026 midterms in November, but a Democrat in Florida’s 24th district also won despite being the target of more than $2 million worth of negative ads funded by Protect Progress. Oliver Gilbert defeated challengers Shevrin Jones and Kendrick Meek with 34.4% of the vote, in a race that addressed the potential influence of the crypto industry.

Florida’s 24th congressional district results for Democratic primary. Source: The New York Times

According to an Aug. 12 Miami Herald report, Gilbert said “[Donald] Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” were behind the “crypto con artists trying to buy a Democratic primary” through the Protect Progress ads. The news outlet said the ads included fake Miami Herald headlines misrepresenting Gilbert’s policy positions, though a spokesperson for the PAC claimed that “the underlying facts in our ad are true.”

The Fairshake PAC, which reported holding a $193 million war chest as of January, was responsible for funding more than $130 million worth of ads supporting candidates it considered pro-crypto in the 2024 election cycle and opposing many who spoke negatively about the industry or voted against its interests. As of June, the committee had spent more than $82 million on races ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Related: UK authorities continue probe into Nigel Farage’s crypto ‘gifts’ after by-election win

Gilbert did not mention the crypto industry or the ads in his Tuesday night acceptance speech. Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said that the PAC was “just getting started building the largest pro-crypto Congress in history” following the three state primaries and other candidates winning in 2026. 

Makeup of next Congress to impact crypto market structure law?

Both the US Senate and House of Representatives are on recess until September, when the former is scheduled to address a cloture motion on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill expected to establish comprehensive regulations for digital assets. Although the legislation passed the House with bipartisan support in July 2025 on a 294-134 vote, many Senate Democrats have been pushing for stronger ethics provisions related to the Trump family’s crypto investments.

Following the 2026 elections, the US Congress could shift from a Republican to Democratic majority depending on the outcome of key races potentially influenced by PACs like Fairshake. Lawmakers elected in November could advance or stymie legislation affecting the crypto industry, including CLARITY, if the current session does not address the bill before 2027.

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Kennedy has praised her