U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing a new regulatory framework for digital assets and explore the creation of a Bitcoin (BTC) stockpile.
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The order from Trump also protects banking services for crypto companies and bans the creation of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) that would compete with existing crypto such as BTC. The order helps fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Crypto enthusiasts will no doubt welcome Trump’s executive order. Many of Trump’s supporters expressed concern on social media when the president failed to make any mention of cryptocurrencies in his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, especially relating to promises of a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Working Group Details
The new crypto working group will be made up of the Treasury secretary, attorney general, and chairs of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The group is tasked with developing a regulatory framework for digital coins and tokens, including stablecoins, a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the U.S. dollar or price of gold.
While the executive order from Trump does not specifically reference a strategic Bitcoin reserve, it does mention that the working group should explore the creation of a “national digital asset stockpile… potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.”
Any stockpile of crypto would almost certainly be Bitcoin, which is the largest digital token by market capitalization and also the most widely used. Former PayPal (PYPL) executive David Sacks, who has been named the U.S. crypto czar by Trump, will chair the working group.
Is BTC a Buy?
Most Wall Street firms don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin, so we’ll look at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance instead. As one can see in the chart below, the price of BTC has risen 52.24% in the last 12 weeks.
