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Author: Turner Wright, CoinTelegraph; Compilation: Baishui, Bitchain Vision
With seven days left before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office, many in the cryptocurrency industry are paying attention to his future personnel choices and policy statements.
Since Trump turned Bitcoin as a “scam” in 2021 to claiming to embrace the technology during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has made many promises to the digital asset industry that could impact regulation and law enforcement.While it is impossible to know whether he intends to prioritize these commitments after he takes office—or whether they are fully fulfilled—there has been some changes in the regulatory field ahead of his scheduled inauguration.
Fired on “On the First Day”
At the Bitcoin 2024 meeting, Trump promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day in office on January 20.Many speculate that while the term of the SEC president will end in June 2026, Gensler is more likely to announce his resignation before Trump takes office as president.
On November 22, about two weeks after the U.S. presidential election, Gensler announced that he would resign on the day of Trump’s inauguration, paving the way for the Senate to confirm another SEC president.The president-elect will have the authority to appoint the acting head of the regulator until the Senate confirms Gensler’s full-time successor.
On December 4, Trump announced his intention to nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to serve as committee chair in 2025.Whoever serves as SEC chairman will have the right to change the regulatory policies and related enforcement actions of digital assets as securities – for which cryptocurrency users have severely criticized Gensler.
Will financial regulators take a different direction from 2025?
Apart from making general commitments to changing the SEC’s position on “defamating” the cryptocurrency industry and “stop ordinary Americans” from transferring funds to exchanges, it is unclear what Trump might have for the committee during his second term.
If identified as SEC Chairman, Atkins will have the right to plan its own path.If Trump disagrees with a decision, he can name the potential committee head on social media or exert other political pressure.
Some members of the 119th Congress recommended supporting the passage of the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act (FIT21), which would clarify the role of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on digital assets.However, even without the bill, there are reports that Trump intends to appoint a CFTC chairperson who supports crypto regulations that benefit the industry.
Under the “2025 Project” — a conservative policy framework that Trump’s transition team refused to accept during the campaign, but reportedly turned to a hiring decision after election day — Congressmen should “modernize the definition of goods […] and clarify the numbersThe framework also recommends that any government “removal of regulatory barriers” in the SEC.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shall clarify the way in which digital assets are handled [by promulgation] joint regulations that stipulate that holders of digital assets shall not be considered as party to an investment contract and shall modify the definition of commodities and shall not belong to the securities.Digital assets are included.”
The Trump-Vance Transition website did not mention the SEC or CFTC in its policy at the time of its release.
The Presidential Advisory Board of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, Trump also said he intends to set up a committee focusing on issues related to digital assets:
“Their mission is to design transparent regulatory guidelines for the benefit of the industry as a whole, and they will do the job in 100 days. We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be made by people who love your industry rather than hate your industry.Make it.”
As of January 13, the president-elect has appointed former PayPal COO David Sacks as his “crypto and artificial intelligence tsar,” leading the committee and appointing former House Republican candidate Bo Hines as executive director.
Trump said Hines and Sacks will be committed to “stimulating innovation and growth in the digital asset space while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed”, but at the time of this article he has not provided more about the committee’s activitiesdetails, and whether these activities may include favorable regulations.
Stop the Fed from developing CBDC
Trump said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference:“The creation of central bank digital currency is over. As long as I am still the president of the United States, there will never be a CBDC.”
Rep. Tom Emmer said the Fed has been exploring the development of the digital dollar for years, including the CBDC as one of its “main responsibilities” in March 2024.So far, the central bank has not proposed any timetable for the possibility of issuing digital dollars, but many U.S. lawmakers and political candidates have opposed the CBDC in the 2024 campaign.
While the U.S. president does have the right to appoint and possibly fire the Fed chairman, their powers in influencing central bank policies are somewhat limited.
Trump can make a public statement, putting political pressure on the Fed to make certain decisions, and may even remove a chairman who disagrees with him, but may not necessarily order the Fed to take actions such as hikes or cuts.
During his first term, Trump appointed Jerome Powell as Fed chairman.Although the president-elect criticized the high interest rates, he publicly stated that he would not try to fire Powell, allowing the Fed chairman to serve at least until the end of his term in May 2026.
