Crypto industry praises Trump, calls for market clarity
TORONTO - The start of President Donald Trump's term earned rave reviews at the world's leading crypto conference Wednesday, but top industry lawyers said digital platforms wanted regulatory clarity while the Republicans control Congress.
"Across the board, it's been a very encouraging three months," said Lewis Cohen, a lawyer specialising in digital assets with the New York firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel.
Cohen was speaking at Consensus, the world's longest-running crypto conference, hosted this year in Canada's largest city, Toronto.
Trump's son Eric, who is promoting his own crypto business, is expected to address the conference on Thursday amid increasing questions about potential conflict of interest with his father in the White House.
Eric Trump is deeply involved in the crypto industry through direct business ventures, notably as a co-founder and executive at American Bitcoin, as well as through family-backed projects like World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP meme coin.
The digital currency saw a spike in value when it announced that its top holders would be invited to a dinner with the president, set to take place on May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club near Washington.
US crypto investors were major supporters of Trump's presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the deep skepticism of the previous Democratic administration toward digital currencies.
Conference participants did not conceal their lingering contempt for Joe Biden's presidency.
Annemarie Tierney of Liquid Advisors, a regulatory expert who previously worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that Trump's return to the White House offered "a chance to reset the relationship" between the industry and Washington.
Biden's administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.
Trump's pro-crypto SEC chair Paul Atkins has dropped cases against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken initiated under Biden. "This is one of the most important things the SEC has done...I never thought I would see this," Tierney said.
Cryptocurrency critics warn that digital assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could cause massive damage if the market crashes.
But believers see digital assets as a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralised authorities and an alternative to traditional banking systems.
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