The wheels are already starting to turn around Donald Trump’s plan to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” upon his return to the White House.
In executive order signed on Thursday, Trump established a “working group on digital asset markets” that will be responsible, among other things, for considering the possibility of the United States creating a “strategic national stockpile of digital assets.”
The pledge to create a stockpile was one of numerous commitments Trump made to the cryptocurrency industry before he was re-elected. Although the idea surprised economists, it was enthusiastically received by bitcoiners. How rumors of an upcoming announcement Thursday spread, price Bitcoin surged to $105,000 per coinjust below record levels.
The order also requires the working group – which will include leaders of various government bodies, financial regulators and the attorney general – to develop an appropriate set of rules and regulations to govern the operate of cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this week, on Trump’s second day in office, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the US regulator that has filed a series of lawsuits against crypto companies under Joe Biden –adopted “cryptography task force”. Under modern management following the departure of former chairman Gary Gensler, who was a household name demonized in the cryptosphereThe SEC will develop a “comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets,” the agency said.
Later in the day, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for crimes committed while running the infamous Silk Road darknet marketplace, one of the first websites to accept bitcoin as payment. After his arrest in 2013, Ulbricht became something of a martyr in crypto circles for his role in spreading the bitcoin gospel.
These initial gestures signal Trump’s willingness to make good on his earlier campaign promises: passing various cryptocurrency-related regulations, reforming the U.S. financial regulatory apparatus, and incorporating cryptocurrencies into the U.S. treasury. The consequences will be widespread, cryptocurrencies believe, reverberating far beyond the shores of the United States and creating the conditions for a modern golden era for the industry.
“Our technology is very powerful and revolutionary. We need to land in different societies,” says Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of software company Consensys. “And America sets the standard for the rest of the world.”
Despite previously dismissing bitcoin as a “fraud,” Trump now has extensive ties to the cryptocurrency industry, many of whose high-profile members have supported his re-election campaign.
In the run-up to the 2024 election, crypto organizations donated hundreds of millions of dollars to super political cryptocurrency action committees, which spent the funds to support crypto-friendly congressional candidates, many of whom were Republicans.
During the campaign, Trump began introducing himself as the first “crypto-president” In July, in front of an enraged crowd of bitcoiners, Trump promised to transform the United States into a cryptocurrency mining powerhouse and create a national bitcoin stockpile if re-elected. In the same speech, he announced the firing of Gensler, the SEC chairman, to the most enthusiastic applause of the evening.