Crypto Industry Gets A Second Chance
The last time I substantively wrote about cryptocurrencies and the crypto industry was in April 2023, when the SEC was firmly hostile against the industry and a slew of negative events (FTX collapse, etc..) pretty well eliminated crypto as an active element in the capital markets (see HERE). That has changed!
Here is a recap of the newly regenerated crypto capital markets initiatives:
Digital Asset Executive Order
On January 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology” supporting the growth of the digital asset industry in the U.S. The order specifically:
- Protects and promotes the ability of individual citizens and private-sector entities to access and use open blockchain including the ability to develop and deploy software to participate in mining and validating crypto assets;
- Allow individual citizens and private-sector entities to self-custody digital assets;
- Promotes and protects the U.S. dollar through the development and growth of dollar backed stablecoins;
SEC Continues It’s Crypto Focus
In the year and a half since Gary Gensler made it clear to the world that he intends to focus on the crypto “wild west” (see HERE) things have gone from bad to worse for the industry. Of course, it is not all the SEC’s extreme crypto scrutiny that is causing problems, but the very real crypto winter including the collapse of the FTX exchange and its FTX Future Fund, and the realization that the metaverse of tomorrow, will actually not be here until… tomorrow have all added to industry problems. Not to mention a slew of bankruptcy filings (FTX, Blockfi, Celsius and Voyager) and several other precarious financial positions (Blockchain.com, Coinbase, Crypto.com and Genesis, to name a few).
However, putting aside the crypto industry financial crisis, the U.S. regulators, including the SEC, FINRA and national exchanges, are scrutinizing any business with even a modicum of crypto focus to the point where it is almost impossible to move
