Bitcoin Steady After Trump Orders Crypto Strategy
NEW YORK/SINGAPORE/PARIS, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Crypto markets saw a slight uptick on Friday, remaining below recent highs. This comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to establish a new working group. The group is tasked with developing long-awaited cryptocurrency regulations and exploring the possibility of creating a U.S. cryptocurrency stockpile.
Bitcoin has generally remained stable since Trump assumed office on Monday, reaching a new record of $109,071. It was trading around $106,000 on Friday, as some of the enthusiasm surrounding possible changes in cryptocurrency regulation diminished.
Bitcoin experienced significant gains following Trump’s election win in November, surging by 50% to surpass $100,000 and hitting its all-time high. During his election campaign, Trump actively courted cryptocurrency campaign contributions, promising to overturn the Biden administration’s stricter rules on the industry, positioning himself as a “crypto president.” His administration began delivering on this promise this week.
In an executive order released on Thursday, Trump emphasized the digital asset industry’s “crucial” role in U.S. innovation. The order created a working group to draft new crypto rules and assess the feasibility of establishing a crypto stockpile. Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdrew an accounting guideline that industry representatives claimed had hampered crypto adoption. Although short on specifics, these moves seemed to alleviate some disappointment after crypto reform was absent from the initial announcements made by Trump on Monday.
At 1714 GMT, bitcoin was up 2.8% on the day, trading at $106,048, while the smaller cryptocurrency ether increased by 4.1% to $3,383.
“What we’re seeing is a little bit of profit taking in line with the uncertainty we’re seeing from Trump now,” noted Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney. “He’s not reneging on some of his promises, but they’re probably not going to come through as hard and fast.”
$TRUMP Token
Trump-linked crypto ventures, including a meme coin known as $TRUMP and tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, have declined from recent highs. The $TRUMP token, launched last Friday, was trading at around $32.62, according to CoinMarketCap, having lost about half its value since peaking around $75 on Sunday. It had traded below $10 early on Sunday.
Adding to concerns, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned U.S. regulators about the coins on Thursday, joining those who have said Trump’s coin and a similar $MELANIA meme coin launched by First Lady Melania Trump pose ethical problems.
“$TRUMP and $MELANIA present grave risks to President Trump’s ability to impartially govern our nation—and to investors in these coins,” she wrote in the letter. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Trump has pledged to hand management of his assets to his children.
Executive Order
Thursday’s executive order also mandated the protection of banking services for crypto companies and prohibited the development of U.S. central bank digital currencies, which could compete with bitcoin and other existing tokens. The working group has until July to submit a report with recommendations for regulatory changes and an evaluation of the potential to create a national digital asset stockpile.
Analysts suggest that bitcoin’s price might experience a pause until the implications of the policy directives become clearer.
“While President Trump’s eagerly anticipated executive order on crypto largely delivered on his campaign promises, the lack of an explicit bitcoin strategic reserve left the crypto market limping into the weekend,” said Jehan Chu, founder at Kenetic Capital, a Hong Kong blockchain venture capital firm.
