Trump orders administration to evaluate potential for ‘national digital asset stockpile’

Forms of money have continually evolved since the days when people accepted seashells for payment. Erika Rasure is globally-recognized as a leading consumer economics subject matter expert, researcher, and educator. She is a financial therapist and transformational coach, with a special interest in helping women learn how to invest. If there’s any traction, it may be a few years before the Canadian digital currency comes to fruition. “I look forward to partnering with President Trump and his team to bring clarity, choice, and opportunity to this important sector of our 21st century economy,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who just took over that committee, in a Thursday statement. The group has to identify all regulations that currently touch crypto within 30 days, recommend modifying or rescinding those regulations within 60 days and file a report with new recommendations within 180 days.

Similar to other central banks worldwide, the Bank is studying the viability of a digital currency in Canada. “These regulations will help ensure that all taxpayers play by the same set of rules and have access to the information they need to file their taxes accurately,” said Aviva Aron-Dine, Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. “Aligningtax reporting requirements for digital assets with reporting for other assets will make filing easier and cheaper for compliant taxpayers while also helping close the tax gap.” President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his administration will evaluate whether to create a “national digital asset stockpile” — making good on a promise to support the use of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. To direct the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to conduct a study on central bank digital currencies, and for other purposes. Popular private cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, often operate on blockchain technology that allows users to jointly monitor the digital assets.

The capacity for third-party features such as custody and recoverability, account and transaction monitoring, and other services. Strong cybersecurity controls capable of mitigating cyber-related risks including ransomware, malware, and fraud and theft. Since 2014, the People’s Bank of China has conducted research and development activities for a CBDC, and in October 2020, launched a digital yuan pilot program in Shenzhen. Hill explained he’s concerned a CBDC might empower the Fed to monitor users’ transactions, and thereby infringe on their rights to privacy. There doesn’t appear to be a Senate companion bill for the legislation at this time. “This bill has the support of 60 Members of Congress and groups ranging from the Independent Community Bankers Association and American Bankers Association to Club for Growth, Heritage Action, and the Blockchain Association,” Emmer said in a press release that day.

But behind the scenes, leaders at the U.S. markets regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission — were already prepping this week to move digital assets businesses out of the multi-year penalty box the previous agency officials kept them in. U.S. President Donald Trump has come through with an eagerly awaited executive order on crypto that directs his administration to establish friendly policies to put the industry on solid U.S. footing and looking into establishing a “digital asset stockpile.” President Joe Biden opposed the bill with a policy statement, though he didn’t say he’d veto the bill, as he had recently when Congress sought to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) effort to set crypto accounting policy. SEC Chair Gary Gensler also came out strongly against the legislation in a lengthy public statement arguing the bill wasn’t needed and endangered existing securities regulations. (e)  As appropriate and consistent with law, the Working Group shall hold public hearings and receive individual expertise from leaders in digital assets and digital markets. (ii)  The Working Group shall evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile and propose criteria for establishing such a stockpile, potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.

“And Republicans are now proposing to reward these illegal activities by making these activities legal.” (b)  Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other relevant agencies, the heads of which are included in the Working Group, shall identify all regulations, guidance documents, orders, or other items that affect the digital asset sector. Within 60 days of the date of this order, each agency shall submit to the Chair recommendations with respect to 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. Financial access and inclusion for unbanked and underbanked consumers, with the ability to make real-time digital payments and transactions through digital wallets. The United States should strive to maintain its leadership in financial technology and ensure that the U.S. dollar remains the predominant reserve currency in the world economy.

Allowing technology companies in Silicon Valley to dominate the creation of such digital currencies isn’t advisable, Carrillo argued. He backs legislation proposed earlier this month by Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, to create a different version of a digital dollar, one that doesn’t operate on a blockchain and preserves users’ privacy, he said. The House Financial Services Committee last week passed a bill that would stop the Federal Reserve from working on a central bank digital currency, giving the full House a chance to consider the legislation.

A CBDC is government-controlled programmable money that, if not designed to emulate cash, could give the federal government not only significant transaction-level data down to the individual user, but also the ability to program the CBDC to choke out politically unpopular activity. If not open, permissionless, and private – like cash – a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP-style surveillance tool that will ultimately be used to oppress our American way of life. The policies we’ve recently debated and adopted are in response to an Administration that has failed to provide the clarity and guidance the budding digital asset industry in the United States has been begging for. Because of their failures, Congress has voted to reverse incoherent regulation and establish new standards that will allow our economy to move deeper into the 21st-century economy.

These policy objectives formed the foundation for the currency’s technical design choices. In March 2022, Biden directed the OSTP, in partnership with other institutions, to scrutinize and come up with a viable answer to the question of digital assets and a U.S. The White House placed urgency on creating a digital dollar, outlining plans to guide its creation. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a digital version of the country’s standard currency. Typically, the value of these digital currencies are the same as the country’s regular, or fiat, currency, such as Canadian dollars.