Incoming President Trump shows support for innovation, but makes no mention of crypto during inauguration speech

In his return to Washington D.C. on Monday, Donald Trump touted his support for innovation, though did not specifically mention crypto during his inauguration speech on Monday. 

“There’s no nation like our nation,” Trump said. “Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts." 

However, Trump did not mention crypto in a document titled "President Trump's America First Priorities" in an email sent out by the office of the press secretary. Punchbowl News earlier released the document. 

During his campaign, Trump drummed up support from top executives, among others, in the crypto industry looking for a change in the U.S. regulatory environment. Trump made several promises to the sector, including promising to commute Ross Ulbrucht's sentence, who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his role in creating and operating the dark web marketplace Silk Road, tied to bitcoin's early history.  

Trump also vowed to stop "Joe Biden's crusade to crush crypto" by ensuring the future of crypto will not be "driven overseas," supporting the right to self-custody and preventing the development of a central bank digital currency. Some Republican lawmakers have been staunchly opposed to a CBDC and say a CBDC could open the door to government surveillance of peoples' transactions. 

Trump is reportedly poised to issue executive orders on his first day that could include creating a crypto council and ensuring that firms have access to banks, according to Reuters. The Washington Post reported last week that Trump could also issue executive orders that encompass repealing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial crypto accounting guidance, SAB 121. 

A potential crypto council could have anywhere between 10 to 100 members. Those members will presumably be crypto executives, but those decisions will be up to the firms to pick who will represent them in the council, said Ron Hammond, senior director of government relations at the Blockchain Association, in an interview with The Block last week. 

Trump also plans to issue an executive order to set cryptocurrency as a national policy priority, Bloomberg reported last week, citing sources familiar with the matter. 

Days before his inauguration, Trump's team launched the TRUMP token on the Solana blockchain which reached a market cap of over $9 billion. Trump has also previously thrown his support behind the debut of World Liberty Financial, a DeFi protocol that counts former that counts the President-elect as its "chief crypto advocate." That project was criticized by some crypto pundits who called it "a meme masquerading as a utility project."