Former Bitfury Executive Jonathan Gould Confirmed by Senate as OCC Director

PANews reported on July 11 that according to The Block, the U.S. Senate approved the nomination of Jonathan Gould, former chief legal officer of Bitfury, as the director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) by a vote of 50:45. The appointment is subject to the final signature of President Trump. Gould served as the senior deputy comptroller of the OCC from 2017 to 2020 and recently worked at the blockchain company Bitfury. It is worth noting that crypto-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis voted against it during the procedural voting stage, arguing that she needed to further communicate with Gould on issues such as stablecoin legislation and the priority of federal banking law, but turned to support it in the final vote.

The OCC has adopted a number of crypto-friendly policies this year, including explicitly allowing banks to buy and sell crypto assets for themselves and deleting the reference to "reputational risk" in the regulatory manual, but emphasizing that banks still need to properly manage related risks.