U.S. Adopts Stablecoin-First Crypto Policy and Creates Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

An executive order in January 2025 created the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by Special Advisor David Sacks, and directed Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the SEC, the CFTC, the OCC, the FDIC, the Commerce Department, the Justice Department, and the National Economic Council to coordinate federal crypto policy, harmonize supervision, propose rules, and shape international engagement. The administration prioritized dollar-backed stablecoins for payments, prohibited federal agencies from developing a U.S. central bank digital currency, and directed regulators to enable private stablecoin issuance under federal rules. Congress enacted the GENIUS Act in 2025 requiring payment stablecoin issuers to hold reserves in short-dated U.S. Treasuries and U.S. dollars, maintain daily liquidity and par redemption, meet audit and governance standards, and implement technical controls to seize, freeze, or burn tokens under court orders or sanctions. An executive action in March 2025 established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile as non-trading, long-term holdings subject to custody, key-management, multi-site storage, and independent audit requirements, and authorized acquisitions that could absorb market float and influence liquidity. Policy changes will increase demand for short-term Treasury paper, channel liquidity toward bank settlement rails, make dollar-backed tokens the compliant route for cross-border payments and settlement, and create legal enforcement friction for noncustodial and on-chain designs that cannot enforce orders across bridges or smart contracts. Agencies have begun withdrawing or revising prior guidance limiting onshore issuance, bank partnerships, or listings, and the working group is drafting a rule calendar with draft rules and staff guidance expected to enter the Federal Register in phased sequences over the next two quarters with staged compliance windows for attestations, redemption standards, and updated AML and sanctions controls. Reported industry contributions tied to political campaigns and family business exposures have prompted scrutiny, led to calls for recusal standards and ethics screens, and prompted expectations of congressional oversight, watchdog reviews, and potential litigation. Market participants and service providers should prepare for reserve attestations, bank-grade custodial segregation, sanctions and OFAC screening integrated into token flows, and auditable controls; noncustodial protocols should assess compatibility with legal orders and compliance tooling; and financial executives and investors should monitor Treasury bill demand, settlement mechanics, and acquisition and custody plans for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Key near-term items to watch include working-group draft rules on reserve composition and disclosure, bank and custodian guidance on segregation and capital treatment, issuer compliance timelines and attestations, operational mechanics of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and congressional or legal challenges to the CBDC ban and token-control mandates. 

Source: https://web3businessnews.com/policy/trump-crypto-policy-pivot-2025/

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