11-10-2026 
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TL;DR: Democrats are jockeying for committee chairs to target Trump’s crypto ventures and prediction markets. The OCC approved Coinbase’s trust bank, regulators are probing bank security after Binance’s $6.3 billion hack, and FinCEN cut off MEXC, prompting Kraken to delete partnership posts.
Key Takeaways:
- Democrats are fighting over who gets to make Trump more miserable, with Maxine Waters and Sean Casten vying to chair the House Financial Services Committee.
- Elizabeth Warren is seeking the Senate Banking Committee chair to scrutinize Trump family crypto businesses and prediction markets.
- Coinbase bank charter is a go after the OCC gave final approval to Coinbase National Trust Company.
- Crypto hacks have U.S. bank regulators nervous after Binance’s record $6.3 billion hack in October.
- FinCEN v. MEXC unleashes Kraken embarrassment, prompting Kraken to delete posts about its MEXC partnership.
Democrats in Congress are fighting over who gets to make President Trump’s crypto profits a bigger scandal, while the growing size and scale of crypto exploits are making U.S. banking regulators nervous.
Congress began its post-midterms ‘lame duck’ session on Monday, with a lot on its plate and not much time for chewing, and that’s even if the Democrats were in any mood to advance the GOP agenda after the shellacking the Republicans took on November 3.
In terms of the digital asset sector, there’s almost universal acknowledgment that the Senate’s current digital asset market structure bill (the CLARITY Act) won’t be rising from the grave following its emphatic rejection in September. Instead, the Dems appear content to wait until they take control in January to introduce their own market structure bill, hints of which have been leaking ever since the polls closed.
Meanwhile, the jockeying to lead the committees with the most sway over what the new bill will look like is well underway. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), is keen to take back the gavel she lost in 2023 when the GOP reclaimed the House from the Dems.
Waters has already released a proposed legislative agenda should she reclaim her former chair. In a November 6 letter to her Dem colleagues urging them to support her chair candidacy, Waters says she’d “pass legislation to stop Trump’s crypto corruption, establish tough but fair rules of the road for legitimate crypto ventures, and create safeguards to protect consumers, small businesses, community banks, and the financial system.”
Waters also pledged “aggressive oversight” of “financial services regulators,” signaling troubled times ahead for the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who have been furiously removing regulatory guardrails for crypto and prediction market operators.
Speaking of the latter, Waters pledged to “rein in predatory lending and predatory platforms, including prediction markets.” Waters also pledged to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which had been a burr in the saddle for many a crypto operator before Trump 2.0 gelded the office.
The 88-year-old Waters will have competition for HSFC chair in the form of Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), a renowned critic of crypto excesses who is rated ‘F’ by the Coinbase-funded (NASDAQ: COIN) astroturf group Stand with Crypto “based on 23 statements and 9 votes.”
A year ago, following Trump’s pardoning of Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao’s 2023 Bank Secrecy Act conviction, Casten said it demonstrated that “if you want to influence the foreign policy of the United States, you can put money in Trump’s crypto ventures.”
Casten is also among the Dems who questioned whether allowing crypto platforms to offer ‘yield’ or ‘rewards’ to customers who hold stablecoins on those platforms would threaten community banks’ ability to continue lending to residents. Along with questions over Trump’s ‘ethics,’ the issue of stablecoin rewards was considered a major factor in CLARITY’s demise. Would a Casten-led HFSC ensure a yield ban extends beyond stablecoin issuers? Watch this space.
Over in the Senate, arch crypto nemesis Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is making her pitch for moving from Banking Committee ranking member to chair. Politico quoted an anonymous Warren aide saying “Big Tech CEOs” and “Trump family crypto businesses” should be among those ready to “preserve their documents and prepare to answer tough questions.”
Punchbowl News also quoted a Warren aide who warned that prediction markets could be in for a rough ride as the senator looked to end the “Wild West-style lack of oversight” by federal authorities, particularly the CFTC and its chair Michael Selig.
Finally, Senator-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is returning to office despite the crypto sector blowing over $64 million in campaign finance bucks to ensure his defeat. Brown could be in line to take over the gavel of the Senate Agriculture Committee, through which any new crypto market structure bill will need to travel. Expect fireworks.
Coinbase bank charter gets final nod
While crypto bros aren’t celebrating the return of their D.C. nemeses, Coinbase is celebrating the news that the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has given final approval to the exchange’s Coinbase National Trust Company (CNTC), the latest in a growing parade of crypto-led national trust charter banks.
Coinbase called the charter “an important next chapter” in its bid to custody everything for everyone, including digital assets on behalf of institutional clients via segregated accounts.
Coinbase’s charter application also indicated its desire to offer its Custody clients access to “staking, financing, and trading services offered by other Coinbase entities,” while exploring “payments products and next-generation advances on its existing custody products that enable clients to interact with select smart contracts onchain.”
Speaking of which, Coinbase just announced an expansion of its partnership with PNC Bank, struck in July 2025, which provides PNC private bank clients with access to its Crypto-as-a-Service platform. The expanded deal will allow PNC’s corporate and institutional clients to receive payments in USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL). This pilot program will see incoming stablecoin payments converted to U.S. dollars before arriving in customer accounts.
Coinbase has similar setups in place with other U.S. banking giants, including Citi (NASDAQ: C), that also allow merchants to accept stablecoin payments at checkout without needing to hold or manage the tokens. Not forgetting those pesky community banks, Coinbase has a deal with payment processor Moov to offer stablecoin payment options to Moov’s community bank and credit union partners.
Are banks safe from crypto hackers?
Coinbase announced its pursuit of a bank charter a year ago, prompting opposition from community banking groups that warned of the risks posed by “Coinbase’s demonstrably flawed risk and control functions.”
On that note, the OCC was apparently spooked by last month’s record $6.3 billion hack of the Binance exchange, the latest in a flurry of crypto exploits that will likely only accelerate as the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools probes digital defenses.
Last week, Reuters quoted sources saying supervisors from the OCC and the Federal Reserve have been reaching out to U.S. banks to determine whether they’ve detected any recent efforts to gain unauthorized access to their systems, as well as to gauge the soundness of their security infrastructure.
One cyber team at “one of the largest U.S. banks” reportedly contacted their Binance counterparts to ascertain what happened (apparently involving one Binance dev clicking a malicious link and downloading malware, then another dev participating in a fake job interview).
With the exception of the rapid failure of some crypto-friendly banks in early 2023 following the string of 2022 crypto platform failures that culminated in the collapse of the FTX exchange, traditional banks have largely been spared any ‘contagion’ from bad tidings befalling their crypto counterparts. Given the ongoing crossover of these two systems under Trump 2.0, we might not be so lucky next time.
MEXC cut off from US financial system
U.S. banks no longer fear the Russia-based MEXC Global exchange, which last week was ‘cut off’ from the U.S. financial system by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as part of its ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ targeting Iranian efforts to dodge Western economic sanctions.
The order, which prohibits U.S. financial institutions from processing funds with any ties to MEXC, was issued based on FinCEN’s determination that MEXC had processed “at least $16 billion in illicit transactions connected to Iranian, North Korean, and Russian sanctions evasion, as well as cybercrime” involving “sanctioned actors.”
In a statement released on November 6, FinCEN detailed MEXC’s alleged facilitation of ~$1 billion worth of “direct transactions with more than 40 identified Iranian [digital asset] exchangers” between May 2021 and May 2026. MEXC also helped the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps handle tens of millions in other transactions.
FinCEN also slammed MEXC for processing nearly $1.5 billion worth of transactions related to Russia-related sanctions, including $200 million worth of transactions involving the A7 Network’s ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5.
MEXC tweeted a statement the same day saying it was “aware” of FinCEN’s order and was “reviewing it closely” with its legal staff but insisted that the exchange was “operating normally and user assets remain secure.” MEXC claimed it was taking the notice “seriously and intends to engage constructively with FinCEN” and had begun “an independent review” of its internal controls.
While FinCEN’s order was subject to a 30-day transition period, some MEXC users who’ve subsequently transferred assets to other centralized exchanges (including Binance, Gate, and OKX) have reported a variety of issues, including compliance reviews and delays in account credits. OKX CEO Star Xu has warned users to “temporarily avoid transferring funds directly from MEXC to OKX.”
A sharp-eyed observer noted that the U.S.-based Kraken exchange appeared to have deleted a recent tweet about an expanded tie-up with MEXC for customers in France. MEXC is winding down its French operations due to its lack of a permit under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations.
The Kraken-MEXC tweet appears to have been real, as a Kraken blog post about the expanded MEXC deal now returns a 404 error and has also been deleted. Kraken, which holds a MiCA license issued in Ireland, previously served as an off-ramp for MEXC’s Dutch customers. Interestingly, that Dutch announcement from August has also been deleted. But never fear, the chocolate ration has been increased to 25 grams!
FAQs:
Who will chair the House Financial Services Committee?
Rep. Maxine Waters wants her old chair back, but Rep. Sean Casten, a vocal crypto critic, is challenging her for it. House Democrats will decide before January.
What does Elizabeth Warren plan to do about crypto?
Warren wants to chair the Senate Banking Committee, investigate Trump family crypto businesses, and end weak federal oversight of prediction markets.
Did Coinbase get a bank charter?
Yes. The OCC gave final approval to Coinbase National Trust Company, which will custody digital assets for institutional clients.
Why are bank regulators worried about crypto hacks?
After Binance’s record $6.3 billion hack, the OCC and Federal Reserve are asking U.S. banks about unauthorized access attempts and security strength.
Why did FinCEN cut off MEXC?
FinCEN says MEXC processed at least $16 billion in illicit transactions tied to Iran, North Korea, Russia, and cybercrime.
What happened between Kraken and MEXC?
Kraken deleted a tweet and blog posts announcing an expanded partnership with MEXC after FinCEN’s order.
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