The prospect of cryptocurrency industry-friendly appointments to key positions is now sparking a wave of enthusiasm that is sending the value of bitcoin skyrocketing.
Since the election of Donald Trump, a wave of euphoria has swept over the crypto industry. The price of bitcoin, one of the main signals used to take the pulse of the industry, exceeded $92,000 on Wednesday, November 13, its highest valuation ever recorded. It stood at $60,000 at the beginning of October.
The new American president has not always been an ardent defender of cryptos. He had even expressed negative opinions towards them during his first term. But during the campaign, riding on the unpopularity of the Biden administration with the industry, Donald Trump became their champion and promised to make his country the “crypto capital of the world”.
Trump campaign received millions from the crypto industry
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, held last July in Nashville, he promised that once returned to power, he would charge people close to the industry with regulating it. Donald Trump has also launched several NFT collections, as well as his own company dedicated to cryptos, World Liberty Financial. He has also surrounded himself with pro-crypto personalities, including Elon Musk, but also David Bailey, CEO of the Bitcoin 2024 conference, and Howard Lutnick, close to the Tether platform.
The industry, in return, bet big on the Republican candidate’s campaign. Several million were paid in total, by a panel of supporters including the Winklevoss brothers, two famous personalities from the crypto world, as well as Jesse Powell, the co-founder of the Kraken exchange platform. The Republican campaign has also raised more than $100 million to elect pro-crypto politicians to Congress.
A new pro-crypto director at the SEC?
To return the favor, Trump will in all likelihood appoint pro-crypto figures to key positions. The most prominent is that of director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), currently occupied by Gary Gensler, appointed by Joe Biden. It has made many enemies within the industry with a very regulatory approach, oriented towards consumer defense, which has led it to scrap with several leading platforms: Binance, Coinbase and even Kraken . The industry also criticizes it for aligning the regulation of the crypto industry with traditional financial products, which is accompanied by very strict rules, where according to them the specificities of the crypto industry require a more flexible approach.
Gary Gensler’s term is not supposed to end until 2026, and while Trump promised during the campaign to remove him from office on the first day of his presidency, he actually does not have the power to do so. Unless it is proven that the director of the SEC committed professional misconduct and begins a long legal process, likely to last up to two years. However, it is also possible that Gary Gensler will resign if he feels that the White House is hostile to him. This is what he seemed to suggest during a recent conference in Las Vegas. “Traditionally, the president chooses who runs the SEC. It’s part of the democratic process,” he said.
Several personalities are already being considered to replace Gary Gensler, including Dan Gallagher, who already worked within the SEC before joining the Robinhood brokerage platform. Gallagher has sharply criticized the SEC’s current approach to cryptocurrencies, saying it limits innovation and pushed for specific rules for cryptoassets.
Other individuals considered for the position also include Paul Atkins, co-chair of the Token Alliance, a pro-crypto lobby, as well as Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce, two SEC commissioners who are very critical of Gary Gensler’s approach. Whichever choice Trump chooses, we can therefore expect the SEC to take a much more crypto-friendly approach.
Create a national bitcoin reserve
Another key position to be filled: that of secretary of the treasury, the American minister of finance. This is Scott Bessent who is expected. This director of an alternative management fund is also a big advocate of cryptocurrencies. “Cryptocurrencies embody freedom,” he recently said, before adding that they “attract younger audiences, as well as people who previously did not participate in financial markets.”
In terms of policy, Donald Trump promised during his campaign to establish a crypto advisory committee which will be responsible for putting in place a regulatory roadmap for the industry within 100 days of taking power. He also mentioned the creation of a national bitcoin reserve, in order to stabilize the economy in inflationary times. Industry professionals hope to finally see the president sign possible decrees soon after taking office, for example to provide clarification on how cryptos should be regulated.
