With the inauguration of President Trump, the crypto world was welcomed into D.C. with open arms, where it found purchase with Republican leaders — and a contingent of Democrats — securing long-sought regulatory wins.
"I've been working on crypto policy for eight years, and everything has always taken longer than I expected, except for [2025]," said Miller Whitehouse-Levine, founder and CEO of the Solana Policy Institute.
"Everything seems to have happened all together, all at once, and I think it's really changed the game for the industry, not just in the United States, but around the world," he told The Hill.
The crypto industry's newly heightened stature in Washington stands in sharp contrast to its political standing in recent years.
During his first term in office, Trump dismissed crypto as a "scam." The Biden administration also had a particularly contentious relationship with the industry under former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, who brought numerous cases against crypto companies.
Whitehouse-Levine described the 2021 Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, which included tax language opposed by the industry, as a revealing moment for the crypto world.
"That was, I think, the first big wake-up call to the industry that you can ignore policy, but policy won't ignore you forever," he said.
"Many of the ideological underpinnings and philosophical underpinnings of the industry made it reluctant to engage in Washington," he added. "And I think August 2021 was the first time it really learned its lesson on that front."
Crypto's standing in D.C. took a key turn in 2024, when Trump reversed course and embraced the industry during his campaign. Speaking at an annual bitcoin conference that July, the then-presidential candidate vowed to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet."
The industry also spent big on congressional races in 2024, with crypto super PAC Fairshake deploying about $130 million.
This included about $40 million spent on the effort to oust former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a staunch crypto critic who chaired the Senate Banking Committee.
Once Trump took office, the crypto world had a platform like never before, as the president brought in crypto-friendly people to serve in key positions — David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czar, Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary and Paul Atkins as SEC chair.
The new administration moved quickly, with the SEC ending numerous investigations and lawsuits against crypto firms even as Atkins awaited Senate confirmation. Trump hosted crypto leaders at the White House and signed an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.
White House officials also set their sights on two key pieces of legislation long sought by the industry: a stablecoin bill and a market structure bill.
Check out the full report at TheHill.com.
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