President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order calling to maintain American leadership in cryptocurrencies and to evaluate the potential creation of a “national digital asset stockpile.”
Trump issued an executive order seeking to “promote United States leadership in digital assets and financial technology while protecting economic liberty.”
The executive order calls to protect American innovation and leadership in the burgeoning digital asset industry and seeks to boost U.S. leadership through a series of actions. This includes:
- Establishing the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets
- Identifying all regulations, guidance documents, orders, and other items that affect the digital asset industry
- Evaluating the potential creation and maintenance of a “national digital asset stockpile”
- Prohibiting a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
- Rescinding a Biden-era executive order on cryptocurrency and a Treasury Department framework on digital assets
- Protecting the rights of crypto users to self-custody their assets, so they do not have to rely on a centralized entity such as a Coinbase, a crypto exchange
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), the chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, which was just announced on Thursday, cheered Trump’s executive orders.
She said in a written statement:
President Trump has promised to make this administration the most pro-digital asset in U.S. history, and within these first days, he is already fulfilling that promise with this executive order. Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States will be the global leader in financial innovation and digital asset advancement.
She added, “I look forward to working with President Trump and my colleagues to pass bipartisan bitcoin and digital asset legislation in the coming months, and ensuring regulatory overreach like SAB 121, Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and lawsuits against digital asset companies are resolved.”
Crypto investors, companies, and executives reportedly accounted for almost half of corporate donations during the 2024 election cycle.
For instance, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, in June donated $2 million in bitcoin to Trump’s reelection campaign, citing the Biden administration’s “war against crypto.”
Since Trump’s landslide victory in November, he has moved to nominate government leaders that support the crypto industry.
He nominated Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Atkins is known to be pro-crypto. He would succeed Democrat-nominated SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has been hawkish against crypto.
The SEC this week announced the creation of a “crypto task force” to be led by Commissioner Hester Pierce, a famously pro-crypto public official lovingly referred to as “crypto mom” by those in the crypto community.
Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent, a pro-crypto hedge fund manager, attended the Crypto Ball the weekend before Trump’s inauguration.
Venture capitalist David Sacks, whom Trump picked to be his crypto and artificial intelligence czar, joined Trump in the Oval Office for the signing of the order.
During the Crypto Ball on Friday, he declared that the “war on crypto is over,” signaling a shift from the largely anti-crypto Biden administration.
“This is just the beginning of America reclaiming its position as the world’s innovation leader,” Sacks added.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
Read the full article here
