Crypto Had a Big Week as Trump Team Makes Good on Promises

It was a big week for crypto following the inauguration of Donald Trump to a second term Monday.

The inauguration of Donald Trump to a second term on Monday brought about a significant week for crypto.

The White House released an executive order on digital assets, calling for a crypto-friendly approach across the administration and the creation of a "digital asset stockpile" (which may, or may not be, a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve).

Regulatory editors Nik De and Jesse Hamilton covered the news extensively, as usual.

The SEC withdrew a controversial crypto accounting rule, launched a crypto taskforce headed by Hester Peirce (aka “Crypto Mom”), and named crypto-friendly Commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, crypto's closest ally in Congress, was appointed to lead the Senate Banking Committee's new digital assets panel, Hamilton also reported.

We analyzed the fallout from the (very) controversial memecoins dropped by the Trump family on the eve of Monday’s swearing in. CoinDesk’s Shaurya Malwa reported that 60 Solana Whales made off with at least $10 million each (many others gained a lot less). Reporting from Tom Carreras on Monday showed that the paper wealth generated by these surprise tokens was, frankly, staggering, even absurd.

Despite the controversy, the memecoins were a great success, leading to filings for memecoin ETFs, Helene Braun reported. Helene also broke the story about how CME leaked information about XRP and SOL futures ETFs by mistake, which sank those tokens and impacted the broader market.

Ross Ulbricht, who founded Silk Road about 12 years ago and introduced bitcoin to thousands for the first time, was released after serving ten years in prison. His freedom was a key promise of the Trump team on crypto. Sam Reynolds covered the story.

The news continued to pour in, making it difficult to recall a week with more crypto-related events of significance. Amidst it all, the Ethereum community engaged in heated discussions about its future (especially that of the Ethereum Foundation). Parikshit Mishra and Sam Kessler followed the story closely.

Stay tuned for more major developments next week.