Quick Review:
- TD Cowen said that Trump skipped cryptocurrency in his congressional speech, indicating that it is not his personal priority.
- Although Trump has been hyping cryptocurrency in front of investors, TD Cowen finds his omission in Congress rather unexpected.
Investment bank TD Cowen said that former U.S. President Donald Trump did not mention cryptocurrency in his congressional speech on Tuesday evening, a notable omission, especially given his recent frequent references to the industry.
The TD Cowen Washington research team (led by Jaret Seiberg) noted in a Wednesday report that this absence suggests that cryptocurrency is not a personal priority for Trump. "If it were his personal priority, it should have appeared in the speech," Seiberg said.
Seiberg also pointed out that the omission is particularly conspicuous, as Trump had just mentioned cryptocurrency in his previous speeches and on social media. He believes that the failure to mention cryptocurrency is "more substantive" than Trump's silence on issues such as housing and banking in the speech, given that the president has a cryptocurrency strategy.
Political Considerations
Seiberg suggested that one political reason Trump may have omitted cryptocurrency in the speech is that Republican members of Congress are working to secure Democratic support for stablecoin legislation in the coming months, and Trump's involvement could make the process more complicated.
However, he also pointed to a more subtle reason - that Trump does not believe cryptocurrency is a core issue in his broader political agenda.
Seiberg said: "Trump has been loudly touting cryptocurrency to crypto investors, but we still believe it is not his personal priority."
Overall, Seiberg believes that Trump's speech "even by Trump's standards, was more focused on performance than substance." He added: "As many commentators noted last night, this speech was more like a campaign rally than a State of the Union address."
The White House will host its first cryptocurrency summit this Friday, hosted by Trump's "crypto czar" David Sacks. Industry leaders Michael Saylor and Brian Armstrong are expected to attend, and there are reports that the meeting may reveal details about the U.S. cryptocurrency reserve.
