Presidential Working Group to Consider Digital Asset Regulations and Stockpile

A newly established Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets will work to develop a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets and consider the creation of a “strategic national digital assets stockpile.”

The Working Group was formed by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, the White House said in a fact sheet released Thursday (Jan. 23).

“The digital asset industry plays a crucial role in innovation and economic development in the United States, as well as our Nation’s international leadership,” the executive order said. “It is therefore the policy of my Administration to support the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy.”

The working group will be chaired by the White House AI & Crypto Czar and will include the heads of relevant departments and agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to the fact sheet.

“The White House AI & Crypto Czar will engage leading experts in digital assets and digital markets to ensure that the actions of the Working Group are informed by expertise beyond the Federal Government,” the fact sheet said.

The executive order also directs departments and agencies to identify regulations and other actions affecting the digital asset sector that should be rescinded or modified; prohibits agencies from doing anything to promote central bank digital currencies (CBDCs); and revokes the  Biden administration’s Digital Assets Executive Order and the Treasury Department’s Framework for International Engagement on Digital Assets.

The fact sheet said the Biden Administration actions that it rescinded “suppressed innovation and undermined U.S. economic liberty and global leadership in digital finance.”

Addressing the news, Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said in a Thursday post on X: “Executive order on crypto has landed — bullish!”

The establishment of the working group came two days after the SEC launched a crypto task force focused on developing a “comprehensive and clear” regulatory framework for crypto assets.

The SEC’s task force will help the commission “draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to regulation, craft sensible disclosure frameworks and deploy enforcement resources judiciously,” the SEC said in a Tuesday (Jan. 21) press release.