A latest SEC cryptocurrency task force announced on Donald Trump’s second day in office helped stoke some latest investor enthusiasm for digital assets because the crypto world waited for executive orders from the brand new president.
The goal of the “crypto task force” from the Securities and Exchange Commission is to assist the US regulator “draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to registration, craft sensible disclosure frameworks, and deploy enforcement resources judiciously,” based on the SEC.
The SEC clashed repeatedly with a number of the biggest players within the crypto world during Joe Biden’s time in office. Trump promised to exchange Biden’s SEC boss Gary Gensler with someone more favorable to the industry.
His selection, Paul Atkins, remains to be looking for confirmation within the Senate, and SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda is running the agency as acting chair.
Industry executives are testing Trump’s latest SEC with fresh applications this week for exchange-traded funds that, if approved, would give investors much more exposure to numerous crypto assets.
On Tuesday, Rex Shares and Osprey Funds jointly filed seven different applications to launch crypto-related ETFs, including those holding shares of XRP, SOL, Dogecoin (DOGE), and the president’s official memecoin (TRUMP). Last 12 months, the SEC allowed BlackRock and other giant money managers to launch spot bitcoin ETFs.
“We’re most definitely anticipating a more welcoming approach from the SEC, and you will notice more product filings from us,” said Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research for asset manager VanEck, one among the many managers allowed to issue spot bitcoin ETFs in 2024.
One slight disappointment for the industry to date this week is that Trump — who in 2024 pledged to make the USA the “crypto capital of the planet” — ended his first day in office without mentioning crypto or releasing any executive orders targeted on the industry. Many within the industry still expect those orders to occur.
“The market is totally disillusioned that there was no activity with regard to crypto yesterday,” Dan Hughes, chief technology officer and founder for crypto startup Radix, said in emailed comments.
“Any executive order targeted positively towards crypto, even when minor, would turn the tide pretty fast,” Hughes added.
One immediate motion the brand new president could have taken is repealing Biden’s own March 2022 executive order on crypto assets, which urged regulators to “take strong steps to cut back the risks that digital assets could pose.”
“I feel somewhat disillusioned that was not repealed, together with the 80 executive orders that were,” said Sigel of VanEck.
“The longer that there is no executive order regarding this asset class, the more impatient the market is prone to get, but I do think that [the Trump administration] bought themselves a while with rhetoric,” Sigel added.
One crucial rule that many within the crypto and banking industry hope to see repealed is a chunk of accounting guidance from the SEC that virtually stops banks from holding crypto in custody for clients.
Donald Trump on the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tenn., last July. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm/File Photo ·Reuters / Reuters
Much of what Trump has promised the crypto world will be fulfilled with personnel changes. And the incoming administration has already named three pro-crypto regulators as acting heads of regulatory agencies.
On Tuesday, FDIC acting chairman Travis Hill published an inventory of priorities for the bank regulatory agency under his watch. One included more transparency in how the agency approaches digital assets.
The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission also named one in every of its crypto-friendlier commissioners, Caroline Pham, as its acting chair on Monday. Pham, a Biden nominee and former Citigroup banker, supported clearer regulation for digital assets in addition to granting the CFTC more oversight in policing the market.
Many within the crypto industry are willing to attend longer for more substantive changes.
Leonard Lancia, CEO of crypto market maker Portofino Technologies, said, “for the crypto market, the potential for a major and well-thought-out Executive Order (EO) stays an exciting opportunity.”
One regional bank boss, Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence, told Yahoo Finance that as overall regulatory rules for crypto turn out to be clearer, stablecoins are an area Fifth Third Bank “definitely would contemplate playing in.”
Considered one of the largest players within the crypto industry, Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong, told Yahoo Finance Tuesday that he’s convinced Trump “really desires to be the primary bitcoin president.”
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid ·REUTERS / Reuters
Armstrong met with Trump prior to and after the election to advocate for the crypto industry.
“Any government that holds gold must also hold bitcoin as a reserve,” he said, noting, “If the US gets a strategic bitcoin reserve, probably the remaining of the G20 will follow, or a lot of them, and that is just going to drive the bitcoin prices way up.”
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
