America’s Crypto Revolution: From Biden’s Crackdown to Trump’s Embrace

Reading Time: 7 minutes

In one of the most dramatic regulatory reversals in modern financial history, the United States has transformed from cryptocurrency’s harshest critic to its most enthusiastic champion. This seismic shift, catalyzed by Donald Trump’s return to the presidency in January 2025, represents not just a change in administration but a complete reimagining of America’s relationship with digital assets. The transformation has touched every corner of financial regulation, from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reshaping the landscape for an industry that spent years battling government hostility.

The Biden Era: Regulation Through Enforcement

To understand the magnitude of this transformation, one must first grasp how antagonistic the relationship between Washington and crypto had become. Under President Biden, the regulatory approach was characterized by what industry participants derisively called “regulation by enforcement”—using lawsuits and penalties rather than clear rules to govern the digital asset space.

At the center of this crackdown stood Gary Gensler, who chaired the SEC from April 2021 until Trump’s inauguration. Gensler adopted a robust enforcement-driven strategy to regulate cryptocurrencies, aiming to protect investors from the risks and volatility of the digital asset market. His tenure was marked by aggressive action: between April 2021 and December 2024, the SEC initiated 125 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, resolving 98 with $6.05 billion in penalties, nearly four times the amount under the prior administration.

Gensler’s philosophy was straightforward: most cryptocurrencies were securities, and companies issuing them needed to comply with existing securities laws. He consistently argued that crypto was rife with fraud and that the industry needed to “come in and register.” But to crypto advocates, this approach felt like punishment without guidance. The SEC provided no clear framework for how companies could actually comply, leading to what many saw as arbitrary enforcement.

The crypto industry feuded with Gensler and the SEC throughout the Biden administration, arguing that the agency had failed to provide clear rules of the road and has instead regulated crypto via enforcement. The frustration reached such heights that eighteen Republican attorneys general sued the SEC and Gensler for regulatory overreach in November 2024.

The Biden administration’s broader financial regulators reinforced this skeptical stance. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued “pause letters” to more than twenty banks, requesting they halt crypto-related activities. Banking regulators scrutinized any institution that wanted to custody digital assets or work with crypto companies. The message was clear: stay away from this industry.

Trump’s Stunning Reversal

The irony of Trump becoming crypto’s savior is that he was initially a skeptic himself. In 2019 he voiced skepticism about digital assets, dismissing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as volatile and potentially dangerous. But by 2024, Trump had completely reversed course. In June 2024, he attended a Bitcoin conference where he pledged to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet”.

This wasn’t mere campaign rhetoric. At that conference, Trump made specific promises: the United States would stockpile cryptocurrency, he would fire Gary Gensler on day one, and he would establish America as the global leader in digital assets. The crypto industry, long accustomed to fighting regulators, suddenly found a champion at the highest level of government—and they invested heavily in making sure he won.

Crypto investors and companies became kingmakers in the 2024 election, accounting for almost half of corporate donations. The industry poured tens of millions into Trump’s campaign and crypto-friendly congressional candidates, a calculated bet that has paid off spectacularly.

The Regulatory Reset: New Leadership, New Direction

Trump moved with remarkable speed once inaugurated. Gensler announced that he would step down on January 20, 2025—Trump’s inauguration day—sparing the new president from having to remove him. This cleared the path for a complete overhaul of crypto regulation.

Trump’s appointments signal the depth of his commitment to crypto. Trump nominated Paul Atkins to head the SEC, choosing someone with a dramatically different philosophy than Gensler. Atkins was an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008, a period during which he developed a record of voting against enforcement actions. He is the chief executive officer of Patomak Global Partners, a firm that offers consulting services to a number of cryptocurrency companies.

The shift in SEC policy has been immediate and dramatic. On February 10, the SEC requested a 60-day pause in its litigation against Binance in light of a potential resolution, and on February 14, the SEC requested a 28-day pause in its action against Coinbase. Cases that had dragged on for years were suddenly being settled or dropped.

On January 21, 2024, Acting SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda announced the creation of a new “Crypto 2.0” task force charged with creating a clear crypto regulatory framework. Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has previously supported regulatory clarity for the crypto industry, will lead the task force. The contrast could not be starker: instead of enforcement actions, the SEC was now actively working to provide the guidance the industry had begged for.

At the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Trump demonstrated similar commitment. On February 13, 2025, Trump nominated Brian Quintenz to head the CFTC. Quintenz was CFTC Commissioner from 2017 to 2021 and is himself a big advocate of cryptocurrencies. Quintenz’s most recent position was as head of policy for a cryptocurrency venture capital fund.

Even the Treasury Department, traditionally cautious about financial innovation, embraced the new direction. On January 27, 2025, the Senate confirmed Scott Bessent as secretary of the Treasury Department. Bessent has been similarly celebrated by the crypto community, bringing pro-crypto sentiment to the highest levels of economic policymaking.

Executive Action: Building the Framework

Trump didn’t rely solely on personnel changes. He used executive orders to establish a comprehensive pro-crypto policy framework. On January 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that sets forth the administration’s policy “to support the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy”.

This order established the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, led by David Sacks, Trump’s “AI and Crypto Czar.” The working group coordinates federal efforts and was directed to submit a comprehensive regulatory framework by July 2025. Critically, the order also restricted agencies from promoting central bank digital currencies—a government-issued digital dollar that crypto advocates view as competition for private cryptocurrencies.

Perhaps most ambitiously, Trump moved to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. On March 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order for the “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile”. The order directs federal agencies to account for all Bitcoin and other digital assets in government possession—estimated at more than 207,000 Bitcoin worth approximately $17 billion—and consolidate them into a strategic reserve similar to the nation’s gold or petroleum reserves.

Trump later announced the reserve would hold five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano. While some prominent crypto advocates argue for Bitcoin only, the multi-asset approach signals an embrace of the broader digital asset ecosystem.

Banking Deregulation: Removing the Barriers

One of the most consequential changes has been reversing banking restrictions. The SEC Division of Corporation Finance and Office of the Chief Accountant issued Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 122, repealing SAB 121, which had made it difficult for financial institutions seeking to offer cryptoasset custody services.

Under the old rules, banks had to treat customers’ crypto holdings as liabilities on their own balance sheets, creating enormous capital requirements that made crypto custody economically unfeasible for most banks. The repeal removed this barrier, allowing traditional financial institutions to finally offer crypto services at scale.

The FDIC and OCC have rescinded their anti-crypto guidance, though the Federal Reserve has been slower to follow suit, remaining what one industry leader called a “structural holdout.” Still, the overall trajectory is clear: the guardrails that kept banks away from crypto are being systematically dismantled.

Legislative Victory: The GENIUS Act

The Trump administration’s crypto agenda received bipartisan legislative support with the passage of the GENIUS Act. President Donald J. Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, a historic piece of legislation that will pave the way for the United States to lead the global digital currency revolution.

This long-overdue legislation creates the first-ever Federal regulatory system for stablecoins, ensuring their stability and trust through strong reserve requirements. Stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies like the dollar—have become essential infrastructure for crypto markets, but they operated in regulatory limbo under Biden. The GENIUS Act provides the legal clarity needed for these instruments to flourish while maintaining consumer protections.

Industry Reaction: Vindication and Opportunity

The crypto industry’s response has been euphoric. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s legal chief, said the Trump administration has “really flipped the script on crypto.” “It wasn’t all that long ago that we had an administration that not only was skeptical of this entirely new technology, but was in fact hostile to it,” Grewal said. “Now we have a White House and a wider administration that is not only welcoming of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies, but embracing it in a number of different ways”.

The market has responded accordingly. Bitcoin prices have surged, and the broader cryptocurrency market has seen significant gains. More importantly, institutional investors who stayed on the sidelines during the Biden years are now engaging with the space, confident that the regulatory environment has fundamentally changed.

Concerns and Criticisms

Not everyone celebrates this transformation. Critics argue that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. Democratic lawmakers like Maxine Waters have called Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve “silly,” questioning whether cryptocurrency serves essential economic functions that warrant government holdings.

Others worry that dismantling regulatory safeguards removes important protections for investors. The crypto industry’s history includes spectacular frauds like FTX and countless scams that have cost investors billions. Gensler’s enforcement actions, while heavy-handed, did return billions to harmed investors and prosecute genuine wrongdoing.

There are also concerns about conflicts of interest. Trump and his family are involved in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency startup, raising questions about whether policy is being shaped by personal financial interests.

A New Era for Digital Assets

Regardless of these concerns, the transformation is undeniable. In less than a year, the United States has moved from crypto’s antagonist to its champion. The change encompasses not just rhetoric but concrete policy shifts across multiple agencies, new legislation, and a fundamentally different regulatory philosophy.

The Biden administration saw crypto as a threat to be contained—a source of fraud, volatility, and systemic risk that needed aggressive policing. The Trump administration sees it as an opportunity to be seized—a technological revolution that could drive economic growth, maintain American competitiveness, and establish the dollar’s dominance in the digital age.

Whether this approach proves wise will depend on whether the administration can balance innovation with adequate consumer protection, and whether the crypto industry can mature beyond its speculative roots to deliver genuine economic value. What’s certain is that the regulatory landscape has been transformed in ways that would have seemed impossible just two years ago.

The United States is indeed pursuing the title of “crypto capital of the world.” Whether that proves to be a visionary embrace of the future or a reckless abandonment of prudent oversight remains to be seen. But there’s no question that America’s relationship with cryptocurrency has undergone a revolution—one that will shape the future of both digital assets and financial regulation for years to come.