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Historic Week for the Crypto Industry as Trump Steps into Office: Your Crypto Recap

It’s been a historic week in the cryptocurrency market! Even though the prices don’t exactly reflect it on a seven-day scale, a lot has happened on the macro level that could pave the way for a longer-term progress that was much-desired. That said, the total crypto market cap currently sits at around $3.8 trillion, but let’s take it one step at a time. The very first thing that happened at the beginning of the week was Donald Trump taking the oath of office and stepping into his position as the 47th president of the United States of America. This unchained a series of events that could provide for a long-lasting impact on the industry. Right off the get-go, Trump signed an executive order, which, among other things, established a working group on Digital Asset Markets with the purpose of exploring the merits of creating a strategic national cryptocurrency stockpile. Now, some clarifications are in order. Many expected Trump to focus on Bitcoin and to actually mandate the government to consider buying it for its national reserves. Whereas in reality, the order only talked about not selling the crypto that the country has confiscated. Nonetheless, the order in question also aims to prohibit the creation and further usage of central bank digital currencies to prevent a potential dispute to the dollar’s hegemony. Also, the document outlines the necessity for for easy access for individuals and crypto companies to the country’s banking system, effectively putting a halt on operation Chokepoint 2.0. That said, Trump also appointed an interim Chairman to the Securities and Exchange Commission – Mark Uyeda. They also established a task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce (a.k.a Crypto Mom) to work on creating a fair and transparent framework for digital assets. All in all, it was a very good week in terms of crypto fundamentals, not so much as for the price as most of the coins are charting losses with the exception of BTC, which is up by around 2%. Market Data Source: Quantify Crypto Market Cap: $3.801T | 24H Vol: $213B | BTC Dominance: 55.3% BTC: $106,100 (+2%) | ETH: $3,397 (-0.7% ) | XRP: $3.16 (-1.3%) This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss Trump Signs Executive Order To Consider National Digital Asset Stockpile: Report . Arguably, the biggest news in the cryptocurrency space this week came on Thursday night when the new US President signed an executive order to review the creation of a ‘National Digital Asset Stockpile.’ This, alongside Senator Cynthia Lummis’ election to chair the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digita Assets, prompted Changpeng Zhao to claim that the BTC reserve is ‘pretty much confirmed.’ Donald Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht . President Trump seems to be keeping up his promises, at least for now, as he officially pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the controversial founder of the notorious Silk Road. The developer spent roughly a decade behind bars as he was convicted in May 2015 on seven charges and received two life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. SEC Revokes SAB 121, Paving the Way for Banks to Hold Crypto . More favorable news from the new US administration toward crypto came with a substantial change within the Securities and Exchange Commission. A new policy, called SAB 122, overturned the controversial SAB 121, which essentially blocked banks from holding crypto assets. Trump Names Uyeda and Pham as Interim SEC and CFTC Leaders . The changes within the two top US financial watchdogs – CFTC and SEC – began with the appointment of Mark Uyeda as the latter’s interim Chair and Caroline Pham to spearhead the former until permanent leaders are voted in. Trump Downplays Meme Coin Profits in First Statement After Launch . The crypto space was rocked in the past week by the launch of two official meme coins by the US President and the First Lady. The consecutive token releases during the weekend sent shockwaves throughout the market, but Trump downplayed the profits when he finally addressed the assets publicly. Here’s What CryptoQuant’s IBCI Signals for Bitcoin’s Next Move . Bitcoin went on a wild ride this week, from a brief slip below $100,000 to a new all-time high above $109,000 on inauguration day. Since then, the asset has calmed and stands a few grand from that peak. However, there are some warning signs that this bull run could come to an end soon or at least be paused for a while. Charts This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis. The post Historic Week for the Crypto Industry as Trump Steps into Office: Your Crypto Recap appeared first on CryptoPotato .

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Nasdaq Files for In-Kind Redemptions for BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF

Nasdaq has filed a proposed rule change to allow in-kind creation and redemption for the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), according to a Friday filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The process allows large institutional investors, called authorized participants (APs), to buy and redeem shares of the fund directly to bitcoin (BTC). It is considered to be more efficient as it allows APs closely monitor the demand for the ETF and to act fast by buying or selling shares of the fund without cash being involved in the process. Retail investors are not eligible to participate. When the SEC first approved spot bitcoin ETFs including IBIT last January, the agency allowed to launch the funds with cash redemption, instead of bitcoin. "It should have been approved in the first place but Gensler/Crenshaw didn`t want to allow it for a whole host of reasons they gave," Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote on X . "Mainly [they] didn`t want brokers touching actual Bitcoin." BlackRock`s IBIT is the largest spot BTC ETF on the market, attracting nearly $40 billion of inflows in its first year, making it the most successful ETF debut ever. Crypto Potato

Congressional Republicans in Hot Pursuit of Biden-Era`s Crypto Debanking

An investigation in the U.S. House of Representatives and a hearing in the Senate will examine whether financial regulators during the administration of former President Joe Biden deliberately cut off crypto industry leaders and others from the banking system in an inappropriate use of authority. “Debanking is un-American — every legal business deserves to be treated the same regardless of their political beliefs," said Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who took over the gavel earlier this month and has scheduled a February 5 hearing on debanking. "Unfortunately, under Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Biden regulators abused their power and forced financial institutions to cut off services to digital asset firms, political figures, and conservative-aligned businesses and individuals." Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is the name Republican lawmakers and the digital assets industry have been using for the systemic severing of crypto insiders from U.S. banks, in reference to an earlier era`s Operation Chokepoint — a government-sanctioned effort to reduce risk in banking by encouraging the lenders to back away from legal but otherwise risky businesses. Delving into the struggle of crypto executives and businesses to maintain banking relationships, the House Oversight Committee is "investigating whether this debanking practice originates from the financial institutions themselves or from either implicit or explicit pressure from government regulators," according to a letter the committee chairman, Representative James Comer, sent on Friday to founders and CEOs of several crypto companies and organizations, including Coinbase, Lightswap and Uniswap Labs. The challenge of pinning the lack of banking options entirely on the government is that some financial institutions may have made decisions based on their own risk appetites or business plans that deliberately steered clear of crypto interests. And banking regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were public in their guidance that regulated banks seeking to do crypto business would face restrictions and additional scrutiny from the agencies. However, a Coinbase pursuit of private FDIC communications with banks demonstrated that the agency directed them to stop pursuing digital assets services until the regulator had specific rules in place, which it wasn`t developing. "We are grateful to assist in the thorough investigation of this pernicious practice,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, which also received the House committee`s letter probing the trend. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have been focusing their own investigation requests on President Donald Trump`s recently launched meme coin, $TRUMP . He`s been accused of using the presidency to rack up billions of dollars, and they cite the token as a potential risk for dangerous conflicts of interest. Crypto Potato