US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at overhauling the country’s cryptocurrency regulations and promoting the adoption of digital assets. The order creates a cryptocurrency working group, tasked with proposing new digital asset regulations and exploring the creation of a national cryptocurrency stockpile.
The group will include representatives from the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other agency heads. Its duties will include developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, evaluating the potential creation of a national digital asset stockpile, and exploring the protection of banking services for crypto companies.
The order also bans the creation of central bank digital currencies in the US, which could compete with existing cryptocurrencies. In a move pushed for by the crypto industry, the SEC has rescinded accounting guidance that had made it difficult for listed companies to safeguard crypto assets on behalf of third parties.
The order was welcomed by the crypto industry, which has been pushing for clearer regulations to promote the growth of digital assets. The move has the potential to push cryptocurrencies into the mainstream, regulatory and crypto experts said.
The cryptocurrency working group is chaired by David Sacks, a venture capitalist and former PayPal executive, who was named crypto and artificial intelligence czar by Trump in December. The order does not provide further details on how the national digital asset stockpile would be set up, and analysts are divided on whether an act of Congress will be necessary.
Hitbtc, the price of bitcoin, hit a fresh record high of $109,071 on Monday amid investor excitement over the new crypto-friendly administration, although it was down to about $103,000 as of late Thursday afternoon.
The order has been praised by the crypto industry, with the CEO and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, Nathan McCauley, saying that it marks a sea change in US digital asset policy.
