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Absence of Trump Crypto Order Amps Industry Tension as He Fails to Mention in Speech

Trump spoke at length about AI but not crypto in World Economic Forum speech, but the president has an executive-order signing session scheduled.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders
The crypto industry is awaiting President Donald Trump 's signature on a pro-digital assets executive order. (Getty Images)

What to know:

  • President Donald Trump has promised action on crypto, but his rash of executive orders hasn't yet produced the expected movement on digital assets policy.
  • He mentioned crypto very briefly at a World Economic Forum address on Thursday, but he focused more on artificial intelligence initiatives.
  • The White House has a session scheduled for the signing of more executive orders on Thursday afternoon.

The crypto industry is desperate to see crypto action from U.S. President Donald Trump, now a few days into his new presidency, but there hasn't yet been a confirmation from the White House that an executive order is pending.

It's not entirely off of Trump's radar, though, because he did mention the crypto industry in his address on Thursday to the World Economic Forum, saying that an increase in domestic oil and gas production will secure U.S. manufacturing dominance and make it "the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto."

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Still, he spent much more of the speech talking about U.S. AI commitments and didn't mention digital assets again.

The sector will likely be watching closely at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, when Trump is again scheduled to sign executive orders. The White House has already issued an extensive array of such orders. While they don't carry the weight of law, such directives can steer the federal government's priorities.

Trump is also scheduled to speak with crypto-friendly El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at 3:30 p.m., news which sparked another rally in Bitcoin's price.

In other corners of the federal government, the Senate Banking Committee established its first digital assets subcommittee on Thursday, with Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis running it alongside other crypto-friendly lawmakers. And the Securities and Exchange Commission, newly led by Republican Mark Uyeda, announced a crypto task force this week.

Jesse Hamilton

Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor on the Global Policy and Regulation team, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022, he worked for more than a decade covering Wall Street regulation at Bloomberg News and Businessweek, writing about the early whisperings among federal agencies trying to decide what to do about crypto. He’s won several national honors in his reporting career, including from his time as a war correspondent in Iraq and as a police reporter for newspapers. Jesse is a graduate of Western Washington University, where he studied journalism and history. He has no crypto holdings.

Jesse Hamilton