Author: Jack Kubinec Source: blockworks Translator: Shan Eoba, Jinse Finance
Donald Trump will begin his second term as President of the United States on Monday. After an expensive campaign season, cryptocurrency has finally welcomed its president.
Following Trump's victory, Bitcoin gained momentum due to his promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. This reserve plan will have the U.S. Treasury accumulate nearly 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. However, industry insiders believe that Trump's presidency may bring more attention to networks like Solana, which are more focused on real-world use cases rather than serving as reserve assets.
In the week before Trump's inauguration, the price of SOL rose 19%. Just as the New York Post reported that the incoming president was "willing to consider" establishing a second strategic cryptocurrency reserve, the SOL price surged another 5%. This reserve could potentially include tokens created by the U.S., such as SOL, XRP, and USDC.
However, the practicality of this idea is questionable. As Paradigm's Vice President Alexander Grieve stated, "Until such reports come directly from Trump or his team, they should be viewed with skepticism." Grieve wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "Also, why would these details end up in the media? Who put them there?"
Nevertheless, other reports this week about Trump's relationship with cryptocurrency seem more credible. According to Reuters, under President Trump, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may "freeze" cryptocurrency lawsuits unrelated to fraud allegations.
The SEC has sued Coinbase and Binance in 2023, alleging that these exchanges operated as unregistered brokers, trading tokens including SOL. According to the SEC's definition, SOL is a security, meaning any U.S. company exchanging this token could be violating the law. The SEC has only issued two special-purpose broker-dealer licenses, and none of them provide SOL-related services. While the SEC has withdrawn the Solana-related allegations in its case against Binance, if the enforcement action against Coinbase is also frozen, a major obstacle to the adoption of this network may be removed.
As the unregistered securities issue around Solana appears to be subsiding, some have already started looking ahead to a Solana ETF (exchange-traded fund). If a SOL ETF is approved, it would allow regulated Solana investment vehicles to trade on public stock exchanges. Polymarket's predictions show a 75% chance of a SOL ETF being approved by 2025. However, Leah Wald, CEO of Sol Strategies, told Blockworks' Katherine Ross that she believes a Solana ETF remains unlikely in the near term.
Under President Trump's tenure and a more favorable regulatory environment, Solana may also gain a more intangible advantage.
Titus Capilnean, VP of Market Strategy at Civic Technologies, stated that when the regulatory status of SOL was uncertain, developers mainly focused on promoting meme coin trading, which "was essentially a form of protest against the SEC's unclear regulation."
"With Trump in office, the crypto space may shift from pure speculation to growth driven by utility. Developers can be more confident in rolling out more sophisticated applications without worrying about regulatory backlash," Capilnean said.
Over the past year, many U.S. Solana developers have told me that their products would have a better chance of finding market fit if the regulatory environment were clearer. Now, they finally have an opportunity to prove this.
