The new Trump era blurs the lines between crypto, banks, and fintech

Crypto firms and major US banks are reportedly closing ranks in the early days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, who has helped dissolve boundaries that had previously kept digital assets and traditional finance at arm’s length. 

President Trump’s promises of turning the US into the “crypto capital of the world” have encouraged traditional financial institutions to seek licenses to offer crypto services. 

The new administration has rolled back several crypto-restrictive guidelines from financial regulators, including the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Likewise, Trump 2.0 has opened doors for more crypto-affiliated institutions to apply for federal banking charters. 

Trump declares open season for crypto and banking 

Cryptopolitan reported last month that the OCC rescinded a Biden-era requirement that forced banks to obtain “supervisory non-objection” before engaging with crypto. 

“It was obviously a big deterrent to being able to do anything new,” said Adam Shapiro, co-founder of Klaros Group. He added that credible applications for bank charters from crypto firms now stand a much greater chance of approval.

Circle, Coinbase Global, Bitgo, and Paxos are among those looking to take advantage of the friendlier regulatory climate. All are supposedly actively considering or in the process of applying for US bank charters. Still, a Coinbase spokesperson confirmed the company has yet to make a formal decision.

“It puts control of the on and off ramp in the hands of the crypto companies themselves,” said Shapiro.

Bank of America could launch stablecoin

Some of Wall Street’s largest institutions are preparing to launch their own stablecoin offerings. Bank of America, a curious but cautious observer of the crypto market, now says it’s ready to issue a dollar-backed digital token, if lawmakers give the green light.

“If they make that legal, we will go into that business,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said during a February 26 interview in Washington, DC. He argued that a fully dollar-backed stablecoin would function much like a money market fund and sees such products as inevitable. 

“It’s pretty clear there’s going to be a stablecoin, which is going to be fully dollar-backed, […] so you’ll have a Bank of America coin and a US Dollar deposit and we’ll be able to move them back and forth because now it hasn’t been legal for us to do it but it’s just like another foreign currency,” Moynihan concluded.

Others like Standard Chartered, PayPal, Stripe, and Fidelity Investments are also building stablecoin infrastructure. On February 4, via a press release, Stripe announced that it acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge and is testing stablecoin-based payments in markets outside the US, UK, and EU. PayPal announced it would offer a 3.7% annual yield to users who hold its PYUSD stablecoin on Venmo. 

Traditional financial entities reassess crypto risk

According to Julian Sawyer, CEO of Zodia, Standard Chartered’s crypto custody unit, demand from US institutions has gone up under Trump 2.0. 

“Since Trump came to power, we are talking far more to US institutions,” Sawyer surmised in a recent interview.

One anonymous founder of a regulated crypto company revealed that they had met with Morgan Stanley representatives in the early weeks of 2025 to discuss a partnership. The founder insisted that banks are playing “catch-up” with crypto firms after nearly a decade of reluctance.

“If you asked anybody six months ago, nobody really would have thought we would be getting here, but now we’re here.” BitGo CEO Belshe said.