Trump’s ‘golden age’ can be for crypto, too

On July 27, 2024, Donald Trump stepped in front of a crowd in Nashville and told them exactly what they wanted to hear. At the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, he promised that, if elected, he would make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and fire SEC chair Gary Gensler immediately. 

That appearance, along with other pro-crypto moves, rallied a voting bloc that was bigger than some gave it credit for. The Kamala Harris campaign would try to cater to them later with a watered-down message and little success. Trump was, without a shadow of a doubt, the ‘crypto candidate.’

So when he failed to make a single mention of blockchain or crypto in Monday’s inauguration speech, there was some understandable unease. I, too, was looking forward to hearing more details about his plans for blockchain technology.  But what I keep coming back to is something else he said to the crowd in Nashville last year:

“We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry.”

No matter what he said (or didn’t say) during the inauguration, that promise is already proving true. His appointments, nominations, and actions all suggest that common sense regulation is on its way. His ‘golden age’ for America can include—no, be powered by—blockchain technology.

The people who love our industry

Not everyone involved with crypto gets the chance to negotiate with policymakers. I’ve been lucky enough to be in the room for some of these conversations over the years, and let me tell you—discussion was impossible with the previous administration. 

It was essentially stonewalling at every turn, painting even innovative solutions with the same brush as scams. Industry leaders were extremely frustrated and either took their operations elsewhere or at least stopped raising their hands to ask questions. It just wasn’t going to happen, even though some party members were pushing internally for a change.

So, the industry waited. It waited and watched support for Trump steadily increase among the crypto community, if only because he promised not to stand in the way. When he won re-election, they cheered (quietly, in some cases) because it meant they could chase their ambition once again. They could build the things they dreamed of. 

In the months since, the incoming administration fortified that faith and support. Just a few weeks after the election, Trump nominated Howard Lutnick, a massive proponent of stablecoins and head of the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, as commerce secretary. 

Paul Atkins, a crypto advocate and CEO of Patomak Partners, was picked as Gensler’s replacement at the SEC. In early December, it was David Sacks’ turn, joining the White House as Trump’s ‘AI and crypto czar.’ The former PayPal executive has been publicly pushing for a ‘new world currency’ for decades and believes wholeheartedly in web3 technology. 

These are the people who love our industry. They’re the people who will not stand in the way of innovation or create rules that box us in. 

Not all that glitters is gold

That innovation—not just investment—will determine whether Trump’s golden age of America comes true.

The solutions we have now are limited and still need improvement if they’re to see widespread enterprise adoption. Take stablecoins, for instance. While they are, in theory, the perfect answer for cross-border transactions, treasury management, and trade finance, institutions still hesitate to integrate them. 

Part of the problem is their inherent anonymity and what that means for regulatory bodies. The chains they exist on were purpose-built to go against a centralized bank, and any contracts you build on top are only band-aids. 

There needs to be a protocol-level identification layer, like the one found on Concordium, to provide the accountability and compliance necessary to meet regulatory requirements and user trust. 

With that in place, USD-backed stablecoins built on a transparent, reliable chain would strengthen the dominance of the US dollar even further and remove any need for a CBDC. Trump’s pro-crypto nominee for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said as much at his recent Senate confirmation hearing. Bessent explained that CBDCs are, in his opinion, reserved for developing nations and dismissed any notion of the US introducing one. 

A 2025 approach

Like many of his peers in the Trump administration, Bessent is focused on innovative policies for innovative technologies. When asked about the darker history of crypto, he simply explained that the US needs “a 2025 approach.”

Hear, hear, says the crypto industry. We’ve been trapped in a loop of 20th-century policies for too long. Change is coming, one way or another, and the US appears poised to take the lead. If they stay out of their own way, Trump’s ‘golden age’ will extend to crypto, blockchain, and the web3 revolution.