President Donald Trump has issued a new executive order directing the Federal Reserve to review whether fintech and crypto firms should receive direct access to the central bank's payment infrastructure. The order, titled 'Integrating financial technology innovation into regulatory frameworks' and signed Tuesday, instructs federal agencies to remove regulations considered unnecessarily restrictive for financial technology firms operating in digital assets and blockchain services. Under the order, the White House specifically asked the Federal Reserve to conduct a comprehensive review of its policies governing access to Reserve Bank payment accounts and payment services, while examining whether existing rules could be expanded to accommodate non-bank fintech and crypto firms. The administration also asked the Fed to clarify whether the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks can independently approve or deny access to payment accounts, commonly known as master accounts, which would allow crypto firms to connect directly to payment systems like Fedwire without depending on intermediary banking partners for dollar settlement and transfers.
Despite President Trump's public opposition to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Timothy Massad revealed that U.S. officials are quietly exploring CBDC-style infrastructure behind closed doors. Speaking at the Digital Money Summit 2026 in London, Massad, who served as CFTC chairman from 2014-2017, said that while the Trump Administration will publicly say a formal retail CBDC is off the table, the evolution of tokenized finance will force a government-backed alternative. Massad pointed to Project Agora, a major Bank for International Settlements initiative where the U.S. is a member country, bringing together seven central banks as a prime catalyst for this exploration. Mark Gould, chief Payments Executive at the U.S. Federal Reserve, acknowledged during the same event that while a digital dollar is not currently under the Fed's remit, a government-backed digital dollar would fall to the Fed's responsibility if it were created.
Pressure around crypto payment access increased after the Kansas City Federal Reserve approved a limited-purpose master account for Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, earlier this year. The arrangement gave Kraken Financial, the company's Wyoming-chartered banking arm, direct access to core U.S. payment rails used for high-value settlements. According to Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi, the approval represented the 'convergence of crypto infrastructure and sovereign financial rails.' However, the account came with significant restrictions under the Federal Reserve's limited-purpose structure, where institutions can access payment systems but cannot earn interest on reserves or borrow from the Fed's discount window. Soon after the approval became public in March, several U.S. banking organizations criticized the decision, with the Independent Community Bankers of America saying it had 'deep concerns' about allowing a crypto-focused institution to access the Fed's infrastructure under a different regulatory framework than traditional banks. The Bank Policy Institute argued the Kansas City Fed approved what it described as a 'skinny' master account before the Federal Reserve finalized a formal policy governing such arrangements.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has escalated her legal challenge to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), accusing the regulator of 'improperly granting national trust charters to companies that do not qualify under the National Bank Act'—calling the approvals an 'apparent violation of the National Bank Act' and moving beyond conflict-of-interest arguments to challenge the foundational legal authority behind the entire wave of crypto bank charters. According to The Block, Warren wrote in a letter dated Monday, May 18 to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould that the regulator has approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies 'that intend to engage in activities that appear to go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law,' describing the recipients as 'seemingly ineligible' under the statute that governs what national trust banks are allowed to do. The Massachusetts Democrat framed the issue as a basic question of legality rather than policy discretion, warning that these crypto trusts 'appear to far exceed the narrow scope of activities permitted by law' and therefore raise the prospect that the OCC is effectively rewriting the National Bank Act through chartering decisions. Warren now argues these approvals pose 'serious risks' to the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system, as reported by multiple sources. In her latest letter, Warren specifically noted that 'these companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank,' emphasizing that stablecoin-focused firms are 'looking like crypto banks, not trust companies.'
The OCC has approved at least 11 national trust charters for digital asset companies since December 2025, marking the fastest such wave in the agency's history with 11 companies filing for or receiving approvals in approximately 83 days. These approvals came after the OCC issued conditional approvals for five digital asset firms to operate as uninsured national trust banks focused on custody and settlement instead of deposits or lending. Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets received conditional approvals in the first batch in December 2025, followed by Bridge (Stripe's stablecoin subsidiary), Crypto.com, and Protego in February 2026. Morgan Stanley, Payoneer, and Zerohash filed applications in February and March, while Coinbase received its charter in early April. World Liberty Financial, President Trump's family crypto venture, has an application pending. The latest approvals include Coinbase, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, Fidelity, Crypto.com, Stripe, and Protego as confirmed by recent reports. Warren specifically questioned whether the regulator properly applied statutory standards when evaluating the fitness of these digital asset companies to operate as national trust banks and demanded clarification on whether the OCC adhered to all relevant legal provisions during the approval process.
Support for expanding crypto payment access has emerged in Congress, with California Representatives Sam Liccardo and Young Kim introducing the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act, known as the PACE Act, which seeks to allow certain non-bank providers access to Federal Reserve payment services. Although the bill remains in its early stages, crypto industry groups have publicly backed the proposal as part of a push to integrate digital asset firms more directly into the U.S. financial system. The proposal describes a restricted version of central bank access that would permit payment system connectivity while excluding features traditionally available to banks. Meanwhile, the American Bankers Association has called on the OCC to ease up on granting crypto firms national bank charters in February, citing unresolved risks in receivership protocols and a lack of finalized federal oversight. The legal controversy centers on what national trust banks are permitted to do under the National Bank Act, which allows national banks to limit their activities to 'the operations of a trust company and activities related thereto'—traditionally meaning fiduciary activities but now potentially expanded through the OCC's regulatory changes.
