Cryptocurrency had a year like no other, driven by a Trump administration that went all-in on digital assets.
Determined to move the industry from fringe experiments into credible, mainstream financial tools, President Donald Trump cleared regulatory hurdles to create near-perfect market conditions. And for the first time, stablecoins had a clear, nationwide legal framework thanks to the passing of the GENIUS Act. Stockpiled Bitcoin was repurposed as a national asset as well, and institutional inflows hit record highs.
What Is Trump’s Stance on Crypto?
President Trump has gone from openly doubting cryptocurrency as a “scam” in his first term to fully embracing it in his second, pitching the United States as the “crypto capital of the planet.” Since his first day back in office, his administration has worked to shift digital asset policy from a heavily litigated liability to core part of global economic strategy, as seen in the creation of a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and bipartisan passage of the GENIUS Act.
Still, self-aggrandizing memecoins and sharp, multi-billion market downturns reminded investors that, even in the most agreeable environment, crypto’s volatility is the only constant. Even with never-before-seen policy clarity and macro market optimism, Bitcoin — crypto’s marquee coin — closes Trump’s first year back in the White House just south of where it started.
Without any sort of concrete benchmark like patterned stability or so-called “to-the-moon” trajectories to cite, it’s unclear whether crypto’s roller-coaster year earned it any real legitimacy. What is certain is that Washington is now fully invested. Crypto’s fate has become inseparable from the administration’s agenda, for better or worse.
A Year in Review: Trump’s Top Crypto Moves of 2025
Here are some of the most consequential moments that reshaped the crypto industry under the self-ascribed “crypto president’s” second term, starting at the top of the year.
Trump Pledges to Make the U.S. a “Crypto Capital”
Along his campaign trail, Trump used some of his strongest language yet on cryptocurrency, promising that the United States would become the “crypto capital of the planet.” While the remark carried no immediate policy weight, it underscored digital assets as a national priority and marked a clear rhetorical shift away from the risk-averse approach of the Biden administration as well as Trump’s own history of distrust around digital assets. Now crypto was being politically rebranded as a token of national security, global competitiveness and tech leadership. This moment was less about the words themselves and taken more as a signal of the federal government’s posture toward the industry moving forward.
David Sacks Appointed “Crypto Czar”
Trump tapped Silicon Valley investor and “Paypal Mafia” member David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar. In this role, Sacks brokered major tech and infrastructure deals like the $600 billion chip agreement with Saudi Arabia and a large-scale data center buildout in the UAE, while also spearheaded the “AI Action Plan” that loosened environmental and regulatory rules in favor of innovation.
So far, his tenure has been marked by intense ethical scrutiny to perceived conflicts of interest. Critics point to his position of privileged access for personal gain regarding his 708 personal tech investments and $400 million bailout. Sacks would go on to suffer a notable policy defeat in July 2025 when his push for a federal moratorium on state AI laws gets rejected by the Senate, showcasing the limits of his “private-sector first” approach.
Pardon of Ross Ulbricht
On his first full day back in office, Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of underground darknet marketplace Silk Road, who was facing two life sentences plus 40 years without parole for charges including aiding and abetting drug trafficking. On the website, users could anonymously buy and sell narcotics and other illegal products and services using Bitcoin. Many viewed it as an implicit acknowledgment that early crypto-era enforcement had been excessively punitive, while critics argued it risked minimizing serious criminal conduct tied to illicit online markets.
SEC Forms Crypto Task Force
That same day, acting Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mark Uyeda created a cryptocurrency task force that would change the culture of crypto regulation on an institutional level. Led by Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce, a well-known advocate for regulatory clarity in digital assets, the group would create explicit ways for companies to register and stay compliant rather than having to learn the rules through after-the-fact enforcement action. Its formation marked an internal shift inside the SEC toward proactive rule-making over regulation by litigation.
The Policy Reset Begins
Days after his inauguration Trump signed an executive order that revoked Biden-era policies that treated crypto primarily as a threat to national security, climate goals and financial stability. In its place, Trump’s order redefined digital assets as a "crucial pillar of American economic dynamism." By stripping away the previous administration's risk-first language, it enabled federal agencies — like the SEC and Treasury — to prioritize growth over containment. Notably, the directive also banned the issuance of retail CBDCs, or government-backed digital dollars, positioning the U.S. in stark contrast to countries like China and the EU that are actively developing their own. The move cemented decentralized, privately issued stablecoins as the primary tool for American monetary dominance.
Along with the crypto task force, this order fundamentally changed how regulators were expected to think about crypto, and laid the groundwork for the regulatory rollbacks that followed.
SAB 121 Spiked, Meaning Big Banks Can Now Hold Crypto
On January 25, 2025, the SEC issued Staff Accounting Bill 122, formally rescinding SAB 121, a controversial rule that forced banks to treat crypto assets as balance-sheet liabilities. For big banks like BNY Mellon or JPMorgan, holding $10 billion in Bitcoin would have required them to hold billions in cash reserves just to offset it, for example, making it a money-losing proposition. With the repeal, institutions could treat crypto like any other asset. Within weeks, major banks began moving their crypto projects out of pilot mode, greenlighting broader market participation.
Memecoins Made Exempt from SEC Scrutiny
In February, the SEC clarified that it would not come after “pure” memecoins — tokens with no utility or business plan — as long as they weren’t sold as investment contracts or used to defraud investors. While informal, the move limits the agency’s own reach, giving the memecoin market some legal breathing room without fear of immediate regulatory action.
Bitcoin Gets “Digital Gold” Reserve Status
Trump transformed the roughly 207,000 seized Bitcoin, collected over years of criminal forfeitures, into a government-held national reserve. The directive also banned agencies from selling any coins, effectively enshrining a “never sell” policy, treating the stockpile as “digital gold” to hedge against global inflation. It’s the first time a major government formally adopted cryptocurrency as a reserve asset.
OCC De-risks Public Blockchains
New guidelines from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave U.S. banks explicit permission to use public blockchains for payments, settlement and stablecoin-related activity. This landmark decision ended years of regulatory ambiguity that had kept blockchain projects stuck in small pilots and compliance limbo. By recognizing distributed ledgers as legitimate financial infrastructure, the OCC cleared the way for banks to integrate crypto-rails into everyday operations.
The Great Dismissal
Throughout Trump’s first year back, the SEC abruptly retreated from its most aggressive crypto enforcement actions, dropping or freezing long-running cases against companies including Coinbase, Ripple, Binance and Gemini. A New York Times analysis later showed the SEC scaled back on 14 of the 23 total crypto cases it inherited this past year. These dismissals removed major legal overhangs that had constrained U.S. exchanges, token listings and institutional participation, but only amplified scrutiny over political influence and conflicts of interest as rulemaking moved from the courts to Congress.
Passage of the GENIUS Act
After years of false starts, the crypto industry scored its first real legislative win when Congress passed the GENIUS Act in July 2025, establishing the first federal rules for dollar-backed stablecoins. The law requires issuers to fully back stablecoins with 1:1 cash or short-term treasuries, and introduced a dual federal-state chartering framework that helps give banks and other financial institutions a clear path to participate. Just as importantly, it codified that compliant stablecoins aren’t securities. With bipartisan support, the GENIUS Act quelled long-standing regulatory fragmentation with a single set of industry-written rules.
Retirement Portfolios Open to Crypto
An August executive order authorized 401(k) and IRA providers to offer direct digital asset exposure, officially removing the fiduciary threat that had blocked crypto from the $35 trillion retirement market. It overturned the 2022 compliance guidance that flagged “volatile” assets in an attempt to normalize Bitcoin and Ethereum as standard components of long-term portfolios. Predictably, the move sparked an immediate multi-billion-dollar inflow from major providers like Fidelity and Vanguard, bridging the gap between decentralized finance and the American middle class.
Trump-Branded Crypto Enters the Market
A Trump-affiliated entity launched a dollar-pegged stablecoin under the World Liberty Financial brand. The project gained traction just as quickly as conflict-of-interest callouts. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family receives 75 percent of token sale proceeds and a share of stablecoin profits, and by December 2025 had earned $1 billion while holding $3 billion in unsold tokens. Early investors included Chinese billionaire Justin Sun, whose $30 million investment coincided with the SEC dropping its investigation into him, and an Abu Dhabi-linked firm that bought $2 billion in $USD1 stablecoins to secure a minority stake in Binance. The Trump-themed memecoins aren’t helping with corruption allegations either.
Bitcoin Hits an All-Time High
Bitcoin hit a historic high of $126,000 during an early October bull run fueled by increased institutional inflows and macro-market optimism. The rally followed the passage of the GENIUS Act, with analysts pointing to improved regulatory clarity as a key driver. At its peak, Bitcoin even briefly overtook silver in total market value.
“Tariff Tantrum” Crashes
Trump’s announcement of a 100 percent tariff on Chinese imports triggered a global risk-off reaction across financial markets, wiping out $18 billion. Within 24 hours, $5 billion in Bitcoin, $4 billion in Ethereum and $2 billion in Solana was liquidated, amounting to what CoinGlass dubbed “the largest liquidation event in crypto history” in an X post. This episode, which was just one of several tariff-related tantrums this year, challenged claims that Bitcoin functions independently of macroeconomic policy, and reinforced crypto’s growing correlation with traditional markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What crypto-related changes did Trump make in 2025?
During Trump’s first year back in office, the federal government reset U.S. crypto policy by banning a government-issued digital dollar, turning seized Bitcoin into a national reserve and passing the GENIUS Act to give stablecoins clear federal rules. It also opened 401(k)s and IRAs to crypto investing and rolled back key banking and SEC restrictions that cleared the way for banks and institutions to fully participate in the market.
Did Trump’s policies make crypto more stable?
Not really — despite unprecedented regulatory clarity and institutional adoption, crypto prices remained volatile.
