President Trump plans to issue a highly significant executive order on cryptocurrency shortly after taking office.
Reuters, citing three anonymous sources briefed on the matter, reported that Trump will use his executive powers to reduce the regulatory burden on digital assets.
Additionally, the president will give an executive order to create a crypto advisory council to advise his government on crypto-friendly policies.
However, details on these potential actions remain unclear. Nonetheless, he could direct the Security and Exchange Commission to rescind the Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121), which applies to custodians of crypto assets who hold digital assets on behalf of their customers.
While well intended to protect crypto owners, SAB 121 increases compliance, accounting, and reporting complexity and costs. It also acts as an entry barrier, preventing smaller firms from breaking into the industry.
Trump could also pressure financial institutions such as banks to end “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” which denies financing to “questionable” industries regardless of their creditworthiness.
The initial “choke” program initiated by former president Barack Obama secretly “de-banks” certain industries the Left detests, such as firearm manufacturers and retailers, payday lenders, and oil drilling companies. The second “choke” program targets cryptocurrency by forcing large banks to deny financial services to cryptocurrency firms.
Marc Andreessen, the founder of the venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), told Joe Rogan he knew 30 founders debanked due to the Biden administration’s anti-crypto stance.
While banks take the heat for financially deplatforming crypto, they usually do so under pressure from the Feds. In January 2023, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a joint statement warning banks about dealing with crypto firms.
Additionally, crypto-friendly banks such as Customers Bank were hit with “significant deficiencies” in their risk management for dealing with cryptocurrency, discouraging them from working with digital investors.
Similarly, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal obtained letters through the Freedom of Information Act request, urging banks to stop crypto-related activities in 2022.
The Biden administration also sued dozens of crypto firms, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken. Biden’s anticipated crackdown on cryptocurrency caused most cryptocurrencies to plummet in price, resulting in market volatility.
Unlike the traditional banking system, which the Left can puppeteer to deny service to industries it does not like, cryptocurrency cannot be controlled at a single point, thus making it a threat to the Left’s greed for power and control.
During the campaigns, Trump presented himself as a crypto president and has appointed “Crypto Czar” David Sacks to address the industry’s issues.
Trump also reportedly appointed pro-crypto a16z chief policy chief Brian Quintenz as the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Another Trump ally, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, a long-time crypto proponent, has proposed scrapping FDIC and returning some of its responsibilities to the Treasury Department. President Trump has also proposed maintaining a national stockpile of Bitcoin.
