Crypto Policy & Legislative of Trump

SEC: Extremely supportive. Trump has promised to “fire Gary Gensler” and is likely to appoint an SEC chair that is supportive of innovation in digital assets.

Treasury – BSA: Trump’s public support of digital assets and a desire within the Trump policy would that FinCEN provide more exemptive relief notwithstanding, Treasury policy is largely formulated by career bureaucrats and the trend on these national security issues has been uni-directional since 9/11.

Treasury – Sanctions: While Trump is likely to be somewhat less stringent than Biden as it relates specifically to digital assets, nonetheless his efforts to curtail foreign adversaries, combined with the institutional nature of Treasury on sanctions, will likely mean that his sanctions policy remains tight on digital assets.

IRS / Taxation: Trump hasn’t spoken publicly about the key IRS issues, but there is likely to be some clarity on tax policy for digital assets. And given his desire to reduce the IRS workforce, it’s likely that even if he doesn’t push to improve IRS policies to digital assets, they could be difficult to administer on enforce under a Trump administation.

Bitcoin Mining: Trump has met with Bitcoin miners and raised money from them. He has characterized Bitcoin mining as domestic manufacturing and pledged that Bitcoin will be “made in America”. His support for electricity and energy generation also dovetails nicely with Bitcoin mining’s industry objectives.

Self-custody: Trump pledged to protect the right of self-custody during his speech in Nashville in July. He is likely to be supportive, though risk of US government default and pressure from Treasury re: terrorism finance may soften his stance slightly.

Banking Regulators: Trump’s OCC allowed national banks to touch blockchains, Trump has pledged to end Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and opposing a CBDC was Trump’s first 2024 crypto policy statement.

FIT12 Legislation: Trump is likely to support any market structure reform favored by the crypto industry, as J.D. Vance’s office has expressed significant issue in advancing market structure legislation.

Stablecoin Legislation: Republicans in general have supported the formalization of stablecoins but want issuers to include non-banks, which is more supportive to industry than the Democrats’ position because it leaves an opening for existing stablecoin issuers. Trump has signalled support for this position.