The White House released a report on Wednesday calling for U.S. agencies to promote cryptocurrency trading and craft new regulations for the industry, the latest step in President Trumpās wide-ranging embrace of the crypto world.
The report was largely an elaboration of policy proposals the White House had already backed, crystallizing the Trump administrationās permissive approach to crypto regulation. In 168 pages, it called on banking regulators, financial authorities, tax officials and U.S. lawmakers to carry out policies that would advance the industryās agenda.
Comparing crypto to world-changing inventions like the railroad and the internet, the report said the United States should āadopt a pro-innovation mind-set toward digital assetsā and ensure that crypto became a āhallmark of the new American Golden Age.ā
Since taking office in January, Mr. Trump has enthusiastically promoted crypto, prompting fans in the industry to proclaim him the first āBitcoin president.ā He has issued executive orders to advance crypto priorities, signed a piece of landmark legislation that created new rules for a type of crypto and ended a yearslong law enforcement campaign against the biggest companies in the industry.
At the same time, Mr. Trump has made digital currencies a cornerstone of his family business, creating ethical conflictsthat have virtually no precedent in U.S. history. Just days before his inauguration, he started marketing a type of cryptocurrency called a memecoin, an experimental asset that his administration is now deciding how to regulate.
Mr. Trump and his sons also run a crypto start-up, World Liberty Financial, which offers a popular form of digital currency known as a stablecoin. The bill that Mr. Trump signed created a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a landmark moment that the industry celebrated with a ceremony at the White House this month.
Mr. Trump was once an ardent crypto skeptic. But on the campaign trail last year, he abandoned his longstanding doubts after a lobbying campaign by crypto executives who were desperate to move on from years of regulatory battles in Washington.
The report released on Wednesday, titled āStrengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,ā stemmedfrom an executive order that Mr. Trump signed in the first week of his term. In the order, he vowed to promote āresponsible growth and use of digital assetsā and called on the government to develop a road map for the industry.
A committee comprising officials throughout the federal government spent months assembling a list of recommendations. Some of the proposals will require authorization from Congress, where legislation to overhaul crypto regulation has passed the House of Representatives and is under consideration in the Senate.
The report calls for new rules that would āimmediately enable the trading of digital assets at the federal levelā and grant oversight of much of the market to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Many crypto investors believe that the C.F.T.C., a relatively small federal agency, is likely to be friendlier than the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nationās top financial watchdog.
The report also directs many other agencies to carry out policies that would boost the crypto industry. It calls on the Internal Revenue Service to ensure āfairness and predictabilityā in how cryptocurrencies are taxed, according to a summary released by the White House.
āOur tax rules must align with new technologies and eliminate compliance hurdles for both individuals and businesses engaged in activities involving digital assets,ā the summary said.
A section of the report devoted to banking directs the U.S. government to āembrace the opportunities digital assets and blockchain technologies offerā and make it easier for crypto firms to gain access to the banking system.
Under the Biden administration, crypto companies complained that regulators were pressuring banks to cut off clients in the crypto world ā a campaign that the industry called āOperation Choke Point 2.0.ā
āBanking regulators should never again pursue the Biden administrationās policies of Operation Choke Point 2.0,ā the report said.
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