Purpose and Policies

January 23rd, 2025 – In recognition of the crucial role the digital asset industry and blockchain technology plays in innovation and economic development in the United States, President Trump has signed a highly anticipated Executive Order on digital assets. The President’s stated purpose and policies serve as recognition by the Trump Administration of: 

  • The critical need to provide for regulatory clarity and certainty in supporting a vibrant and inclusive digital economy, and innovation in digital assets, permissionless blockchains, and distributed ledger technologies. 
  • The obligation to promote and protect fair and open access to banking services for all law-abiding individual citizens and private-sector entities; 
  • The strategic importance of lawful and legitimate U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins in promoting and protecting the sovereignty of the U.S. dollar globally; 
  • The necessity of protecting blockchain infrastructure providers such as miners and validators;  
  • The criticality in protecting developers and deployers of digital assets technologies from ill-fitting and burdensome regulation; 
  • The value to US citizens and businesses in ensuring the right to self-custody digital assets and engage in peer-to-peer transactions; 
  • The threats posed by CBDCs to the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the U.S.   

Definitions 

The EO defines several terms including, 

  • Digital Assets – Any digital representation of value that is recorded on a distributed ledger, including cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and stablecoins. 
  • Blockchain – Any technology where data is: (i) shared across a network to create a public ledger of verified transactions or information among network participants; (ii) linked using cryptography to maintain the integrity of the public ledger and to execute other functions; (iii) distributed among network participants in an automated fashion to concurrently update network participants on the state of the public ledger and any other functions; and (iv) composed of source code that is publicly available.
  • Central Bank Digital Currency – Digital money or monetary value, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank. 
     

Existing EO Revocations 

The EO revokes Executive Order 14067 of March 9, 2022 (Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets) and the Treasury’s July 2022 Framework for International Engagement on Digital Assets, nullifying all related policies and directives. The Secretary of the Treasury is tasked with ensuring compliance with the new administration’s digital asset policies. 

Establishment of the President‘s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets 

The Working Group will consist of the following individuals or their designees from the relevant executive and agency bodies: 

  • Treasury Secretary 
  • Attorney General 
  • Secretary of Homeland Security 
  • Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
  • Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs 
  • Assistant to the President for National Economic Policy  
  • Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 
  • Homeland Security Advisor 
  • Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission 
  • Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 
  • National Security Council (where matters of National Security arise) 

The group is also charged with holding public meetings and receiving feedback from individual experts from industry. 

This Working Group is tasked:  

  • 30 days [February 22]: with identifying all regulations, guidance documents, orders, or other items that affect the digital asset sector, which they will report to the Chair and the President.  
  • 60 days [March 23]: each agency in the Working Group will submit to the Chair recommendations on whether each identified regulation, guidance document, order, or other item should be rescinded or modified, or, for items other than regulations, adopted in a regulation. 
  • 180 days [July 22]: with submitting a report to the Assistant to the President for National Economic Policy of regulatory and legislative proposals that advance the policies established in this order. The report will include: 
  • A regulatory framework proposal covering the issuance and operations of digital assets, including stablecoins, with consideration given to provisions on market structure, oversight, consumer protection, and risk management. 
  • An evaluation of the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile and proposal on criteria for establishing such a stockpile, potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government. 

Prohibition of CBDCs 

This section prohibits the establishment, issuance, or use of CBDCs in the U.S., citing risks to financial stability, privacy, and sovereignty. As defined above, CBDCs could potentially encompass both retail and wholesale issuance and use. Furthermore, agencies must halt any ongoing CBDC plans and are barred from pursuing new initiatives, except as required by law. 

See official EO fact sheet here.