President Donald Trump began sending clear signals about the cryptocurrency industry from the early days of his administration. A series of measures, including new regulatory guidelines, executive orders, strategic digital asset stockpiling plans, and the launch of a dedicated task force, raised expectations that cryptocurrencies might not be treated as securities.
However, there are complaints in the cryptocurrency industry that these changes did not lead to substantial regulatory improvements. While the policy stance is clear, there is criticism that specific guidelines or legislation are still lacking. In particular, there are assessments that the press conference led by David Sacks' cryptocurrency policy team and the Bitcoin strategic stockpiling executive order are merely symbolic measures.
One of the most practical achievements of the Trump administration was solving the 'debanking' problem for cryptocurrency companies. During the Biden administration, regulations had led to many cryptocurrency companies being isolated and unable to use banking services. In response, President Trump abolished SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 within two days of taking office and announced new accounting guidelines to reduce regulatory burdens on banks holding cryptocurrencies.
On March 7, the OCC revoked its previous Interpretation 1179 and released Interpretation 1183, allowing banks to independently perform cryptocurrency custody and related tasks without prior approval. On March 28, the FDIC also withdrew FIL-16-2022 from the Biden administration, enabling banks to autonomously decide on cryptocurrency-related activities without prior notification.
With the three major financial authorities - OCC, FDIC, and SEC - successively relaxing regulations, the possibility of improving financial infrastructure access for cryptocurrency companies in the medium to long term has significantly increased.
Another key policy change in the Trump administration was the SEC's enforcement direction. After Trump's inauguration, the SEC withdrew lawsuits alleging unregistered securities sales against major cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, Cumberland, and ConsenSys. The decision to withdraw the Ripple case appeal and return a significant portion of the fines acted as a positive signal across the industry.
Beyond complete case withdrawal, the SEC has also postponed civil lawsuits against companies like Binance, TRON, and Gemini, essentially suggesting the possibility of settlement. Particularly for Gemini, despite similarities with already dismissed cases, the prosecution is still maintained, leading to interpretations that there might be background reasons beyond procedural considerations.
Moreover, the SEC has quietly discontinued investigations into several companies including Robinhood Crypto, OpenSea, Uniswap, and Yuga Labs. Since these companies had previously received Wells Notices, the SEC's mid-course withdrawal is interpreted as a retreat from existing legal interpretations.
There is growing interpretation that all these measures implicitly show a stance that "cryptocurrencies are not securities". The traditional securities law-regulated matters such as brokerage, exchange operations, clearing, and issuance are essentially not considered regulatory targets. Recently, the SEC has even officially stated that Metacoin, Proof of Work mining, and dollar-based stablecoins are "not subject to securities law".
Of course, the lawsuit withdrawals and guideline changes after this administration's launch have not provided clear guidelines for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. There are concerns about potential inconsistencies in interpretation and application due to Trump's unique "Flood the Zone" information strategy, which results in multi-dimensional policy outputs.
Nevertheless, with the recovery of banking accessibility and ongoing lawsuit withdrawals, the legal uncertainties for cryptocurrency companies are quickly being resolved. If the Trump administration proceeds with full-scale legislation and institutional improvements, there are expectations that the United States could gain an advantage in global regulatory competition.
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