OCC Chief Plays Down Stablecoin ‘Bank Run’ Fears

The top banking regulator in the U.S. dismissed fears that stablecoins could trigger a sudden deposit crisis, urging community banks to view the digital assets as tools for competing with Wall Street giants rather than existential threats.

Jonathan Gould, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, told attendees at the American Bankers Association Annual Convention in Charlotte on Monday that any material deposit flight “would not happen in unnoticed fashion” and “would not happen overnight.”

“If there were to be a material flight from the banking system, I would be taking action,” Gould said, noting that “highly elected officials” and trade associations would also intervene.

His remarks come as the banking industry has spent months demanding Congress close loopholes in the GENIUS Act, the nation’s first major stablecoin legislation signed into law in July.

Standard Chartered recently projected stablecoins could siphon $1 trillion in deposits from emerging market banks within three years, while a Treasury Department report estimated stablecoins could trigger up to $6.6 trillion in U.S. deposit flight depending on yield offerings.

The sector continues to grow, with users of prediction market Myriad (launched by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan) placing a 55% chance on the market cap of all stablecoins crossing $360 billion before February 2026.

Federal banking agencies working on GENIUS Act rulemakings are “very conscious of the statutory deadlines that Congress has given us,” he added.

Payment stablecoin connectivity “might be a possibility” for community banks to “break some of the dominance that exists right now among the very largest banks in the payment system in America,” Gould said, emphasizing his role in ensuring “there are ways for you to do this in a safe-and-sound manner.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Gould said of creating an “unlevel playing field” where only institutions with “risk management sophistication” or strong balance sheets can participate in new technologies, pledging to open “as many paths as possible for your long-term viability and success.”

Banking groups warn of “loopholes”

The American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, and over 50 state banking groups wrote to Congress in August demanding closure of “several loopholes” in the GENIUS Act.

The banking groups urged Congress to extend the interest prohibition to “digital asset exchanges, brokers, dealers, and affiliated entities” and called for removing the approval pathway that lets non-financial firms issue stablecoins.

“Banks’ concern with stablecoins isn’t just about regulation—it’s about survival in a changing financial landscape,” Prarabdh Sharma, DeFi Partnerships at STBL, told Decrypt. “Even a 10% shift could raise their funding costs by 20–30 basis points, cutting into lending capacity and profitability.”

However, Prarabdh noted the shift opens opportunities, as banks can “adopt the same underlying blockchain rails to tokenize deposits, streamline payments, and issue regulated, interest-bearing digital dollars of their own.”

Bridge applied for an OCC national trust charter in October, following Coinbase, Circle, Paxos, and Ripple.

Anchorage Digital became the first digital asset firm to receive an OCC charter in 2021, though it operated under a consent order until August, when the OCC terminated the order, citing the bank had reached “compliance” with safety and soundness requirements.