Revisiting Trump’s crypto promises after his election win

The president-elect promised to support bitcoin mining in America and halt government bitcoin sales on the campaign trail

article-image

Prashantrajsingh/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


There was a lot of election uncertainty a day ago. Now there isn’t. 

Donald Trump — a man who has promised to support the crypto industry — is set to return to the White House in January. Bitcoin hit a new record high as a result.

The now-president-elect’s pledges in recent months included firing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, supporting bitcoin mining in America and halting government bitcoin sales.

Beyond Trump, more members of Congress are expected to support the space than ever before. There were so far 257 pro-crypto House candidates elected (compared to 115 with an anti-crypto stance), according to nonprofit Stand With Crypto’s rankings. In the Senate, the crypto-friendly winners outpace those viewing the industry negatively, 16 to 12.

While Republicans gained control of the Senate, the House was still up for grabs as of midday Wednesday. 

“With the likely Republican sweep, the obstacles for fulfilling [Trump’s] promises will come down to three factors: order of importance in the grand scheme of politics, how sound the policy proposed is, and the personnel hired within the White House and relative agencies,” Blockchain Association government relations director Ron Hammond told me.  

FalconX’s David Lawant and Kaitlin Gately said in a Wednesday note that stablecoin legislation is “likely the lowest-hanging fruit.” They also highlighted the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) Act, which still needs to get through the Senate after the House passed it in May with bipartisan support. 

CoinShares research head James Butterfill labeled the prospect of the BITCOIN Act — which would establish a US strategic bitcoin reserve — a “key focus.”

Though most of the long-term problems facing the crypto industry will need a legislative solution, Trump can take some actions in the short term, Hammond explained.

“The most immediate: the debanking issue plaguing the industry and course-correcting the hostile approach the banking regulators have taken under the Biden Administration,” he argued. 

Speaking of regulators, many are keeping an eye on who Trump could select to replace Gensler as SEC chair — and when.

Trump seemed surprised by the Bitcoin 2024 conference crowd’s raucous applause when he said he’d fire Gary. And we know Trump loves big-crowd love. 

Hammond told me last month he expected Trump, if elected, to replace Gensler quickly (in January or February). Lawant and Gately pondered whether Trump could select either Hester Peirce or Mark Uyeda (both existing SEC commissioners) to lead the agency; we’ll simply have to wait and see.

One other action to watch out for, the FalconX pros pointed out, will be the crypto-focused advisory council Trump mentioned in July — “tasked with designing transparent regulatory guidance for the industry within the first 100 days of the new administration.”  

Professional Capital Management founder Anthony Pompliano told CNBC on Wednesday morning that while he doesn’t expect Trump to do everything he said he would while on the campaign trail, fulfilling some of the promises would suffice. 

Creating a strategic bitcoin reserve, for example, would be a “huge tailwind” that would spur “global game theory,” he explained. 

Former SEC senior counsel Ashley Ebersole told me in August that a presidential pro-crypto approach could be as simple as “White House silence” paired with stacking agencies with crypto-forward leaders.

I was reminded of that when Pompliano added: “If he’s going to protect [bitcoin] and not be abrasive, that’s a win.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

Sponsored

AI project Zerebro intersects the spheres of artificial intelligence, finance, art, music, and culture

article-image

Allmight is focused on furthering the United States’ leadership in crypto

article-image

The conditions Charles Schwab is waiting for before jumping headfirst into crypto could take shape soon

article-image

The FCA’s director of payments and digital assets shared some takeaways from chats with crypto companies and law firms

article-image

Let’s take a look at how US equities typically perform this time of year and what we might see in the coming days

article-image

Lumina introduces transparency and permissionless integration via an OP stack-based optimium, challenging traditional oracle designs