Trump’s first 100 days for digital assets | #331

Also—Game of Thrones, stablecoin edition

May 05, 2025

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Trump’s first 100 days for digital assets
Game of Thrones, stablecoin edition
Stuff happens

1. Trump’s first 100 days for digital assets

While Trump’s tariff policy could be labeled as chaotic, he’s been far more consistent in his first 100 days when it comes to the digital asset industry and financial innovation including signing an executive order establishing his approach week one of his presidency.

He would later sign another one, ordering the establishment of a digital asset strategic reserve. A third is expected around fair access to the banking system, ending years of what people have called Operation Chokepoint, the political debanking of certain sectors including crypto.

But as Blockworks points out, the biggest impact will be felt through his personnel choices in key positions:

After all, as Foley & Lardner partner Patrick Daugherty told me, “Personnel is policy.”
Thus, he argued, Trump’s picks to lead the SEC and CFTC — Paul Atkins and Brian Quintenz, respectively — have been his two most impactful crypto decisions so far.
“[The SEC] favors rulemaking and interpretation, rather than enforcement, as [its] primary regulatory tools,” explained Daugherty, who is also an adjunct digital assets law professor at Cornell and Northwestern.
…
Looking ahead, the SEC is likely to address the uncertain application of the Howey and Reves cases to digital assets, the need for more crypto custodians, and the potential to revise what Daugherty called “rearguard disclosure mandates” that hinder registration.
“‘Come in and register’ must become a realistic opportunity rather than a false promise,” the law firm partner said.
As for the CFTC, it must gear up for the bigger role it will have in overseeing the industry, Daugherty noted. Quintenz, who has been working as a16z crypto’s policy head, “will assure alignment between the two agencies,” he added.

There is also, of course, impending stablecoin legislation, which has garnered bipartisan support.

As with all things Trump, there are some distractions—like his personal venture into memecoins and the recent off of a private dinner for top investors. His family and public company have also ventured into the space—including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s stablecoin project as well as a planned “utility token” for Trump media (via Mitja Simcic).

2. Game of Thrones, stablecoin edition

As described by Axios:

Many players aren't planning to be part of a collective, however. Each one wants to be the next Visa, that is, to rule this new category.
Tether is king of stablecoins, for now. The company behind by far the most used stablecoin, USDT, claims it's already expanded usage well beyond crypto trading, and it's popular in the developing world.

Meanwhile, the company is talking about bringing the fight for stablecoin dominance to the U.S., possibly attempting to disrupt Block, Inc.'s Square payments system, making a new point-of-sale system with perks for customers that use a new, designed-for-U.S. compliance stablecoin.

Paypal has bet on increasing the utility of its stablecoin, PYUSD, because it believes the instruments open up a universe of new kinds of business, starting at the enterprise level and in cross-border transfers.

It just announced a 3.7% return on its stablecoin when held within its app, which would be most of the yield the issuer is earning off the stablecoin's underlying Treasuries.
The theory here is that sharing yield with users will make it more likely that they keep that money in the digital wallet, making it more likely that they spend them with a merchant.

Paypal however, the first mainstream fintech to issue a stablecoin, is passing on a big disruption in the payments system.

"We think new payment rails will exist with old pay
ment rails," Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the company's lead on digital assets, tells Axios.

Between the lines: Whether stablecoins disrupt the current payments system, or simply become integrated into its backbone infrastructure, it appears inevitable that they will soon play a significant role.
…

But the infrastructure built for it will be everywhere, powering the future, and someone — a new king — will run it all.

USBC

Trump’s first 100 days for digital assets | #331

Also—Game of Thrones, stablecoin edition

1. Trump’s first 100 days for digital assets

2. Game of Thrones, stablecoin edition

3. Stuff happens

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