Bloomberg: Trump Considers Establishing First-Ever White House Crypto Role

A report from Bloomberg suggests that Donald Trump is looking to create a new White House position focussed on cryptocurrency policy. The report, published this morning, cited unnamed sources familiar with Trump’s transition efforts who claim the president-elect is in the process of vetting potential candidates from the digital assets industry to fill the role.

If the role ends up being created it’ll be the first crypto-focussed White House job, highlighting just how big a role crypto could play in Trump’s second term. Trump’s team hasn’t publicly commented on the potential new role and it’s not clear precisely what it would entail, but sources say the crypto industry is pushing for the position to have a direct line to Trump.

Related: Finance Pro Linked to Tether, Howard Lutnick, Nominated For Trump’s Cabinet

What Do We Know So Far?

While details on this new crypto role are still sparse, sources say that discussions so far have included the possibility of the position having a small staff and liaising between the president, congress and regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto policy.

No prominent frontrunner to fill the position has been identified yet, but according to the sources Trump and his team have recently met with several crypto industry figures at his Florida-based club, Mar-a-Lago to discuss the role and interview candidates. Notable figures whose names have been floated for the role include:

• Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong — Armstrong reportedly spoke with Trump on the phone yesterday and is scheduled to meet with the president-elect in person on Monday.
• Brian Brooks, who previously served as an executive at Coinbase and Binance and currently sits on the board of the Hedera-linked, HBAR Foundation — he is also currently a leading contender to replace Gary Gensler as the Chair of the SEC.

Some other names the crypto community have said they’d like to see in the role include Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, crypto lawyer John Deaton, and entrepreneur Balmain Srinivasan. 

Related: XRP Wobbles as Ripple CEO Questions Trump’s Potential SEC Chair Pick

Trump’s Crypto Ties

Trump has become increasingly supportive of crypto over the past few years after initially being a pretty vocal sceptic, saying as recently as 2021 that “Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam…I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.”

These days though Trump’s whistling a different tune on crypto, saying during the election campaign that he intends to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet”, and vowing to replace SEC Chair, Gensler, with a more pro-crypto figure. Trump has also suggested implementing crypto friendly policies like exempting Bitcoin and US-based cryptocurrencies from capital gains tax and establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Trump and his family have also created their own crypto projects, including Trump-themed non-fungible token (NFT) collections and the DeFi lending platform World Liberty Financial, which has been widely criticised as having all the hallmarks of a pump and dump scheme.