President Trump creates crypto task force, wants digital inventory
President Donald Trump‘s Executive order on cryptocurrency It seeks government regulation that could help make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Trump — who campaigned as a “crypto president” — issued the order Thursday evening. It calls for the creation of a cryptocurrency working group to propose new regulations for digital assets and consider creating a national cryptocurrency reserve.
As a result, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will likely become more mainstream and perhaps be used for payment just like credit and debit cards.
“This means that cryptocurrency and digital assets are granted legitimacy by our federal government,” Amy Lynch, former SEC regulator and founder and president of the financial advisory firm Frontline compliancehe told USA TODAY. “Once regulation is in place and the new executive orders are implemented (if not significantly changed by the working group), cryptocurrency transactions in the US will exponentially increase.”
“What this brings back is something that was already missing, which is a set of reliable, trustworthy, reliable guardrails that can provide some basic protection for those who are in the crypto market,” Yesha Yadav, a professor who specializes in financial regulation at Vanderbilt Law School, told USA TODAY. “
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What’s in President Trump’s executive order on cryptocurrency
The request creates the Digital Asset Markets Working Group. They include: Secretary of the Treasury (nominated Scott Pessen He awaits a vote of the full chamber on his nomination), White House AI and Crypto Czar David SacksChairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Trump nominated Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins), along with “heads of other relevant departments and agencies.”
The group is governed by the development of a regulatory framework for digital assets, according to the arrangement. This includes stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency usually pegged to the US dollar.
For those who have invested in cryptocurrencies, the “lack of basic protection” can be “very costly,” Yadav said in USA Today. “What has been missing…for those who use things like StableCoins (is knowing for certain that the assets backing those stablecoins actually exist and the issuers are useful for their claims.”)
Also among the tasks of the task group: investigation into the creation of A Digital inventorywhich could include assets “potentially derived from cryptocurrencies that have been lawfully seized by the federal government through law enforcement efforts.”
Such a reserve would equal cryptocurrencies as commodities, similar to gold, Lynch said. “We have gold reserves, so this arrangement seems consistent with that.”
Crypto enthusiasts disagree on whether the US should sell Bitcoin — it owns nearly $20 billion, obtained through legal seizures, according to Crypto tracking company Arkham Intelligence — or even actively buy and store Bitcoin, Yadav said.
“Should the United States hold other types of crypto assets? This is an open question, but this idea has been hotly debated,” she said.
Trump’s order ends with a statement: “The growth of digital financial technology in America must remain unhindered by restrictive regulations or unnecessary government interference.”
How Trump came to crypto
Trump’s executive order on encryption by President Joe Biden’s administration Released in 2022. It sought to promote cryptocurrencies and research the possibility of creating a Federal Reserve digital currency.
The crypto industry has described the Biden administration as anti-crypto and has sought action by Congress and regulators to write new crypto regulations to clarify when a crypto token is a security, a commodity, or falls into another category. For its part, the Biden administration said Breaking the rules regarding securities.
Yadav said the Biden administration’s crypto regulation framework “never happened.” In 2022, when Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has gone bankrupt She said clients lost at least $1 billion. “The consequences of this lack of action were clear.”
Trump was not initially a crypto supporter. During his first term in 2019, Posted on x That is, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is very volatile and depends on thin air.”
but Trump came on encryption Because Republicans supported its use. and PRO-Crypto Campaign Donations It helped Trump’s re-election campaign.
Trump got into the crypto business himself Digital trading cardswhich are well-known digital assets Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTS). Recently, he and First Lady Melania Trump issued a… Meme coinswhich are also digital assets that can be traded as cryptocurrency.
“The new $trump and $Melania coins are proof that the new president fully supports the use and issuance of cryptocurrencies,” Lynch said. “These coins are also another way for the president and his family to monetize the industry for their financial benefit.”
Trump’s Executive Order on Crypto: ‘Sea Change’
The crypto industry praised Thursday’s order, with Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Crypto Company Anchorage Digital, Reuters: “Today’s crypto executive order represents a change in US digital asset policy.”
Others including large banks see this as a step towards making it easier for consumers to transact cryptocurrency.
“If the rules came along and made it a real thing that you could actually transact with, then the banking system would come hard on the transactional side of it.” He told CNBC in an interview From the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
However, not everyone is bullish on crypto. “I’m not an advocate, nor a critic… It’s not what it was supposed to be, which was an alternative to banking,” Anne Walsh, chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, which is headquartered in New York and Chicago, told Reuters.
“For me, that’s what cryptography is really about Nasdaq “It’s an appetite indicator for me.”
Contributing: Matthew Brown and Billy Schulz of USA Today; Reuters.
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2025-01-25 00:33:00
