The new US president is moving fast. With an executive order, Trump charged his "Crypto Tsar," David Sacks, with developing a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto assets. In addition, his working group is to evaluate a strategic crypto reserve.
After a wave of executive orders on migration and economic issues, Trump focused on crypto during his first week in office. The newly formed crypto task force has six months to provide the president with recommendations for regulations and legislative proposals. Sacks will work with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the Chairman of the SEC, and the Chairman of the CFTC. All are widely considered to be "crypto-friendly".
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The U.S. as a crypto nation
President Trump's executive order signals his intent to position the United States as a global hub for crypto assets. Controversial regulatory strategies previously implemented by agencies such as the SEC were immediately reversed. Trump noted that this approach would "make a lot of money for the country." The immediate effects of this new direction are already visible. Nearly 50 crypto ETFs are now awaiting SEC approval, a list that has more than doubled since Gary Gensler's resignation. Many of the pending products focus on alternative crypto ETFs beyond bitcoin and ethereum, including solana, XRP, and even meme coins like dogecoin and bonk.
The SEC also rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121). This controversial guidance previously required financial institutions that held bitcoin and crypto assets for customers to report those holdings as liabilities on their balance sheets. The rule imposed significant operational and financial burdens on banks due to capital reserve requirements, effectively preventing them from offering crypto-asset-related services. The immediate repeal of this directive has made crypto custody services attractive to banks once again.
Ban on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
Finally, Trump issued an executive order banning central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). A CBDC is a digital version of a country's fiat currency issued by its central bank and can be thought of as a government-controlled version of a stablecoin. However, concerns about privacy and the reduced role of the private sector have raised significant questions about their adoption. For these reasons, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided against introducing a CBDC, as explained in a CVJ.CH interview with Thomas Moser, an alternate member of the SNB's Governing Board.
In contrast, the EU is continuing its research into CBDCs, with the European Central Bank (ECB) planning to launch a CBDC for the general public in the coming years. Trump's executive order effectively uproots any similar efforts in the United States. The order mandates the immediate termination of any ongoing plans or initiatives related to the creation of a CBDC and prohibits any further action to develop or implement such projects.
