Trump’s Triumph Is Also Crypto’s: Gensler, Regulatory Clouds Likely to Vanish

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump will once again take the White House, having secured more than enough electoral college votes to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris and auguring a more permissive regulatory environment for crypto in the world’s largest economy.
Crypto has not been a major issue through this election cycle, though Trump, the Republican candidate for president for a third election in a row, did a great deal of outreach to the crypto industry, by speaking at a bitcoin conference, handing out burgers at a crypto bar and otherwise making statements appealing to the industry, including promising to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler. Harris, the Democratic candidate, has on a handful of occasions shared some general comments about supporting the industry but did not delve deeply into her views.
On Wednesday morning, AP’s live tracker showed Trump winning Wisconsin to gain another 10 votes in the electoral college for a total of 277. He needs only 270 to secure election. Republicans also won control of the Senate, flipping Ohio, Montana and West Virginia’s seats.
During Trump’s first term as president, his regulators introduced a controversial wallet proposal that died under the Biden administration, as well as a special purpose broker dealer license that was later finalized under Gensler.
Despite that record, in this campaign cycle Trump has promised to name a new chair to the securities regulator, and vowed that “Bitcoin will be made in the USA” on social media and in speeches.
He also promised to free Silk Road developer Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted on multiple charges for creating and operating the dark net marketplace.
Trump enjoyed vocal support from sections of the crypto industry as a result of his outreach, building on the support he already drew after selling multiple waves of non-fungible tokens.
“Bitcoin is not just a marvel of technology, as you know, it’s a miracle of cooperation and human achievement and a lot of relationships that are formed. They just did a meeting, a roundtable, with a lot of the leaders, and it’s amazing,” Trump said at Bitcoin Nashville. “There’s a great camaraderie.”
Trump has also more recently leaned into more authoritarian rhetoric, warning about “the enemy within” the U.S. and promising mass deportations over the past few months of his campaign. The former president’s economic policies also rely heavily on imposing tariffs on various imports from the U.S.’s trading partners.
UPDATE (Nov. 6, 11:02 UTC): Updates with Trump’s victory throughout.
Edited by Marc Hochstein.
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Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation. He owns marginal amounts of bitcoin and ether.