Trump crypto appointment spurs optimism 

Trump announced Sunday his pick for executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets

article-image

Chip Somodevilla/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


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


President-elect Donald Trump appears to be working down his crypto promises list via another personnel decision. 

Trump said Sunday that Bo Hines will serve as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. David Sacks, the PayPal co-founder who Trump tapped to be the US government’s AI and crypto czar earlier this month, will chair this group.

Hines will work with Sacks “to foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space, while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish, and remain a cornerstone of our nation’s technological advancement,” he added.

A former NC State (and Yale) football player, Hines sought to represent North Carolina’s 13th Congressional district in 2022, but lost that election to Democrat Wiley Nickel. He launched a campaign in December 2023 to represent the state’s 6th Congressional district — endorsing Trump that same month before posting this to X in January:

Loading Tweet..

Trump had referenced a US crypto council in July during his address at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. He said it was something he would assemble “immediately” before asking for a show of hands who wanted to be on it. The crowd roared.

The then-presidential candidate said the council’s task of designing crypto regulatory guidance would get done in 100 days. We’ll have to monitor that. 

Reuters reported last month that people at crypto companies Ripple, Kraken, Circle, Paradigm and a16z were among those wanting a seat at that table.

Trump’s ongoing engagement with the industry seems to show his pro-crypto rhetoric was not just lip service. A few days before that Reuters story ran, Trump nominated crypto-friendly Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the Department of Commerce.

The soon-to-be president also just met with Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek last week about crypto-related appointments and a bitcoin reserve.

Those congratulating Hines on X yesterday included crypto bigwigs Michael Saylor and Fred Thiel — leaders of two companies (MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital) which own roughly 490,000 BTC combined.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 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.

Industry City | 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.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Nillion_DeSci_Report_Template.png

Research

Nillion’s Monad Integration is poised to catalyze the next phase of DeSci’s evolution by eliminating key privacy bottlenecks. This synergy allows researchers, institutions, and DAOs to exchange sensitive data and insights securely while managing governance and payments onchain.

article-image

More crypto IPOs and M&A in the coming weeks could depend on bitcoin’s price, VanEck’s research head says

article-image

Bitcoin launched 16 years ago, but investors still cannot agree on how to value blockchains

article-image

Martin Masser wants to see more US builders using TON, though the TON Space Telegram wallet isn’t available there just yet

article-image

Sui Foundation told Blockworks it’s not currently supporting Seed, and Mysten Labs only helped Seed with its smart contracts.

article-image

Bitcoin hit this little-known milestone days before Pizza Day

article-image

Blockworks Research also thinks that net new assets (NNAs) are a metric to keep an eye on