On November 20, Bloomberg reported that President-elect Donald Trump is considering creating a new position at the White House dedicated to cryptocurrency policy.
Trump's team is discussing with industry executives to determine whether this role is needed, according to Bloomberg. They are also vetting potential candidates, including meetings at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
This would be the first dedicated cryptocurrency position at the White House. This underscores the prominent role of the cryptocurrency industry in the Trump administration.
Trump won over pro-cryptocurrency voters by promising to make the US the "cryptocurrency capital of the world" and prevent regulatory crackdowns on the industry.
According to Bloomberg, it is unclear whether this would be a White House staff position or a "cryptocurrency czar" to coordinate policy across federal agencies, but cryptocurrency industry supporters are pushing for the role to report directly to Trump.
The person in this role is expected to lead a small team and serve as an intermediary between Trump, Congress, and various federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Executives like Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and former Coinbase executive Brian Brooks met with Trump on November 19, according to Bloomberg.
Trump's transition team is considering current and former CFTC officials to lead the financial regulator.
Republican CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger, who has called for the agency to take a more flexible approach to cryptocurrencies, is among those being considered to lead the agency, Reuters reported.
Mersinger has criticized the CFTC's handling of enforcement actions against cryptocurrency firms, accusing the agency of "regulating by enforcement."
On November 19, Trump selected Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as his commerce secretary. Lutnick has a long history of supporting cryptocurrencies.
Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase surged above $300 in November for the first time since 2021 after Trump's victory in the US presidential election on November 5.
"We view Coinbase as a beneficiary of the election outcome as the company has faced legal pressure from the SEC, and the company is actively fighting the agency in court," Michale Miller, a stock researcher at Morningstar Inc., said in a November 7 research note.
"With the expectation that the upcoming Donald Trump administration will be more favorable to the cryptocurrency industry, the company's staking business will face less legal pressure," Miller said.
Source: The Bitcoin Historian
