What to know:
- President Donald Trump has helped bring some of crypto’s greatest successes in the industry’s U.S. policy fight in the year since he was elected, but his tumultuous leadership style has also contributed to some of the sector’s ongoing disappointments.
- A year later, in the midst of a record-setting government shutdown, the top crypto priority in Congress has been languishing, and the president’s popularity flagging.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Donald Trump was elected president again one year ago this week, though some of the crypto industry’s lobbyists quietly say they feel like they’ve aged many years in this tumultuous 12 months, which saw a range of lofty highs and deep frustrations in the young sector’s hunt for U.S. policies.
President Trump surged back into the White House with wide support from crypto voters and optimism from many of the most prominent U.S. leaders of the industry that he’d secure their place in the U.S. financial system. In many ways, that faith in the politician has paid off.
He quickly issued executive orders demanding progress on friendly crypto policies and the establishment of a bitcoin reserve to stash the government’s holdings as a long-term investment.
“Since day one he has issued executive orders and moved for agencies to pay attention to digital assets and how blockchain can increase transparency across the government,” said Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, in a statement to CoinDesk.
In Congress, the industry shifted from pariah of 2022 (during its struggles with failing firms and fraud prosecutions) to a top priority of 2025, with significant support from a president who made continual demands of allied lawmakers. In a stunning example of rapid, bipartisan legislating, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS) Act became law, the first major U.S. crypto policy effort to do so.
The Trump administration’s Treasury Department and banking agencies have already begun trying to sort out its implementation — a lengthy process as it winds its way through public-comment periods and eventually through multiple rule proposals.
The GENIUS Act was meant as a companion to advance alongside the more important legislation that would set up rules of the road for U.S. crypto markets beyond the stablecoin issuers. While that effort again passed in the House of Representatives this year, the Senate hasn’t yet acted.
As he continues goading Congress, Trump has made some consequential appointments to run the U.S. financial regulators. At the top of that list for crypto advocates is Paul Atkins, who was confirmed to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is a crypto supporter who made friendly new policies his top priority at the agency. He’s lately promised concrete rule proposals in the coming months.
Trump also installed Jonathan Gould, a former crypto lawyer, atop the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
“The past year has delivered what many thought impossible: a complete reversal of federal crypto policy, transforming America from a jurisdiction defined by regulation-by-enforcement to one that’s racing to lead the global digital economy,” said Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute.
On the flip side of his administration’s crypto progress, Trump’s volatile leadership has potentially threatened other parts of the agenda. The current, prolonged shutdown of the federal government — the longest-ever, beating the record set during Trump’s first term — has contributed to a derailing of the Senate’s legislative work, including the single most important U.S. policy aim for crypto: the market structure bill.
