Hello! Aleks here!

"There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”

This quote may be mistakenly attributed to Lenin but no matter — it describes what happened in crypto policy over the past seven days, and previews the changes to come. 

Let’s start with the big one: On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to overhaul crypto policy and study the creation of a national crypto stockpile.

The president also banned CBDCs and created a new “working group on digital asset markets” that has 180 days to recommend a “Federal regulatory framework” governing the “issuance and operation of digital assets, including stablecoins.”

The crypto industry has long pined for “regulatory clarity.” It appears Trump intends to deliver.

But that wasn’t crypto’s only major win.

Hours after Trump issued his executive order, the Securities and Exchange Commission rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a short piece of accounting guidance that prevented big banks from holding large amounts of crypto for their customers.

The measure stymied Wall Street’s tokenisation efforts because its definition of digital assets was so vague it could have included tokenised securities. This is big: tokenisation has the potential to become a $16 trillion market by 2030.  

There’s more: On Tuesday, Republican senators introduced a bill to overturn a new regulation that labelled DeFi websites “brokers,” forcing them to screen customers and record their every transaction to boost tax compliance.

The overwhelming majority of crypto sloshing around the $182 billion DeFi sector flows through those websites. One tax attorney who spoke to DL News expected many to shut down or move abroad when the regulation takes effect in 2027.

Meanwhile, crypto foe nonpareil Gary Gensler stepped down from the SEC and pro-crypto Commissioner Mark Uyeda is running the show until the Senate confirms Gensler’s replacement. 

Uyeda made Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as “Crypto Mom,”  the head of a new task force assigned to formulate regulations for digital assets. 

And Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the 40-year-old crypto anti-hero who was serving a life sentence for running the Silk Road drug emporium.

If all that wasn’t enough, the Senate scheduled a February 5 hearing to debate “debanking.”

What’s the upshot of all this policy action? Hard to say but it looks like Trump is serious about delivering much of what he promised on the campaign trail. 

“It's kind of bittersweet that we won so much because now I don't have as many things to complain about,” Crypto investor Nic Carter said on X. “Maybe I should take up gardening.” 

ICYMI

• Inside the crypto portfolios of Trump’s cabinet picks

  When Donald Trump holds his first cabinet meeting as president, he will be surrounded by his handpicked officials to lead the executive branch of government. Many will be crypto bulls.

• Trump issues sweeping crypto order to ban CBDCs and study national stockpile

  In a wide-ranging executive order Thursday, US President Donald Trump demanded a major overhaul of crypto policy as well as a study that would evaluate the creation of a “national digital asset stockpile.”

• Prosecutor of SBF named interim head of Manhattan US attorney’s office

  One of the stars of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial has a new gig. On Monday afternoon, Trump named Danielle Sassoon the interim head of the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan and part of southern New York state.

Story of the Week

Why billionaire Justin Sun is the key to Coinbase’s defence against BiT Global

A couple of months ago, a Coinbase team made a big call — it decided to delist a version of Bitcoin that runs on Ethereum, a cryptocurrency the exchange had offered customers since 2020. Why the sudden change?

According to court documents, Coinbase suspected that Justin Sun, the billionaire founder of the Tron blockchain, exerted “potential control” over so-called wrapped Bitcoin, or wBTC.

Post of the Week

Donald Trump’s release of his own memecoin triggered a wave of criticism from longtime sceptics such as Senator Elizabeth Warren but also a host of DeFi influencers, including Vitalik Buterin.

Comment of the Week

The kidnapping and release of David Balland, a co-founder of the crypto wallet provider Ledger, transfixed the European digital assets community last week.

DL News is an independent news organisation that provides original, in-depth reporting on the largely misunderstood world of cryptocurrency and decentralised finance. From original stories to investigations, our journalism is accurate, honest and responsible.

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