Tech leaders rally behind Trump’s crypto push

Washington: Leaders of major US technology, cryptocurrency and financial companies have backed President Donald Trump’s push for lighter regulation and clearer digital-asset rules, saying his policies were bringing investment and innovation back to the United States.

Executives from Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, Chainlink Labs, Gemini and the Intercontinental Exchange joined Trump at the White House ahead of the first meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee.

Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong said Trump had recognised during the 2024 presidential campaign that millions of cryptocurrency supporters felt excluded by the previous administration.

“He made a commitment at that time to make America the crypto capital of the world and within weeks of taking office, delivered on that promise,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong cited the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, enactment of the GENIUS Act and the appointment of pro-innovation regulators. He said the next major step was passage of the CLARITY Act, with a congressional vote expected on September 15.

“This would make all of the progress that this administration has made durable into the future, so it could survive for decades and decades to come,” he said.

Armstrong said some large banks could oppose the legislation because of competition from cryptocurrency companies. He nevertheless described the measure as bipartisan.

“There are hundreds of pages of changes that have come in from the Democrat side as well,” he said. “It’s a true bipartisan compromise.”

Intercontinental Exchange founder Jeffrey Sprecher, whose company owns the New York Stock Exchange, credited Trump’s trade, energy and tax policies with contributing to record market activity.

“Your trade policies of fair trade to bring back jobs and businesses from overseas, your energy dominance policies to fuel the next generation of technology in the United States, um, your big, beautiful bill that created incentives for investments has, um, led to the records that you’re hearing about in our stock markets,” Sprecher said.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev called for wider access to investments through tokenisation, including assets in privately held companies.

“Today, too much economic value is being created before ordinary investors get a chance to participate,” Tenev said.

He said American investors should not be the last to benefit from technology developed and powered in the United States.

“American companies are building this technology, American markets are powering it, American assets are also at the centre of it; American investors should not be the last to benefit,” he said.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi recalled telling Trump that his company moved at “warp speed”.

“The first thing he said is, ‘ Why not at trump speed,” Sethi said. “So we started acting in that way.”

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the United States should lead both cryptocurrency and prediction markets. His brother and fellow Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss praised the work of the SEC and CFTC chairmen.

Chainlink Labs co-founder Sergey Nazarov said stablecoins were increasing the international use of the US dollar. He also said tokenisation would expand global access to American equities.

“There’s actually a very real and tangible outcome that’s really now benefiting the US and adoption of US-issued assets and the US dollar,” Nazarov said.

The White House event brought together companies that operate cryptocurrency exchanges, trading platforms, blockchain infrastructure and traditional securities markets. Their businesses would be directly affected by legislation dividing oversight between the SEC and CFTC.

The CLARITY Act is intended to establish a federal regulatory framework for digital assets. Its progress is being watched internationally, including in India, where technology workers, investors and blockchain companies have significant exposure to American clients and financial platforms.

IANS