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FRANCE – 2025/01/20: In this photo illustration, Trump Meme, Trump the Crypto President, is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo illustration by Romain Doucelin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Cryptocurrency business owners are optimistic about comprehensive federal rule changes for the industry that will pass this year now that Donald Trump, who is a supporter of bitcoin, has returned to the White House.
The CEOs of CoinbaseBinance and Circle told CNBC that they now see a clearer path towards securing some concrete rules on digital assets – unlike the previous US administration, which took aggressive enforcement action against several major crypto companies.
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong said he sees crypto entering “the dawn of a new day” with a Trump-led US administration.
“You have to remember: the last four years, we really felt like we were being attacked by this administration,” Armstrong told CNBC in a TV interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland.
“They tried to weaponize the lack of clarity in the rules to really push, even on good players,” Armstrong added. “There were also some bad actors, to be fair – but they also really tried to go after the good actors, I think, like us.”
Coinbase is the largest crypto trading platform in the United States The company often presents itself as a regulated alternative to offshore exchanges, such as Binance.
Regulatory clarity to boost the sector
On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States announced the launch of a “Crypto task force” aimed at “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto-assets”.
The SEC panel will be tasked with developing a clear set of rules for the crypto sector, as well as addressing issues related to the registration of coins, according to a statement from the agency.
Coinbase’s Armstrong said that the current main priority for crypto as an industry is working to get legislation in the United States to offer clarity.
“The industry is ready for this new change,” he told CNBC. “They are ready for clear rules. And this is our big push.”
Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, highlighted token issuance, trading and asset management as some of the key things he expects to see progress on crypto-specific legislation in the US .
Teng said he sees “much clearer regulation” happening in the US this year – and that this would be supportive for bitcoin and other digital assets.
“If you look at past cycles, this year will be a year that we see a new all-time high for the crypto industry,” Teng said in a fireside discussion hosted by CNBC in Davos, Switzerland.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, passed the price of $100,000 for the first time last year, as traders grew optimistic about the prospects of the crypto industry under a Trump administration.
As of Wednesday, the token was trading at a price of around $104,000, according to CoinGecko data.
US bitcoin strategic reserve
Binance’s Teng also expects the United States to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve — something Trump suggested he would do during his campaign.
Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, said he believes “it would be prudent for central banks to hold some reserves in something like bitcoin,” adding that this could cause a return to commodity-backed money.
“If we look back when we decoupled from non-sovereign commodity money, we really saw in the world incredible abuses through fiat and this continues,” Allaire said. “Most governments around the world are significantly in debt.”
“It took a kind of open heart surgery, shock therapy, in a place like Argentina to get out of this vicious cycle. And I respect that this is an important issue for the United States government now,” he added.
Trump has previously suggested that a US national bitcoin reserve could be backed by crypto assets seized from criminal operations, such as hacking and fraud rings.
Anticipated Stablecoin Laws
Along with a pro-crypto president, the United States now also has senators and representatives who support the technology and want to put it into regulation – something that is “absolutely appropriate”, Allaire stressed.
Allaire noted that there are already “American champions” in the crypto space such as Circle, Coinbase and blockchain platform Solana. “I think under this new administration, we’re very likely to see rapid progress in rulemaking and policy to move this industry forward,” he said.
Circle’s CEO sees US legislation moving forward particularly around so-called stablecoins — digital tokens designed to be tied to real-world assets like the dollar — as there is already bipartisan support in the Congress for such tokens. Circle is behind USDCwhich is one of the largest stablecoins.
U Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Acta project that seeks to establish a regulatory regime for stablecoin issuing licenses, was working in Congress before last year’s elections. It has yet to pass a House vote.
