The crypto industry is advancing. (Just don’t ask it where it’s going.)
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After a dramatic start to the year, the crypto industry is settling into a new reality — one in which the White House is laying out the red carpet and promising an unprecedented level of support.
Crypto, a roughly 15-year-old industry that’s largely operated on the fringes of finance, is at a crossroads. For years, it has blamed a hostile regulatory environment for not allowing it to unleash its supposedly revolutionary technology on Americans. Now, though, their favorite bogeyman, Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission chief under President Joe Biden, is gone. Crypto cheerleaders have been installed throughout the government.
The SEC has dropped several enforcement cases against crypto companies and, starting Friday, is hosting a series of public roundtables “to discuss key areas of interest in the regulation of crypto assets.”
Under President Donald Trump, there’s virtually nothing stopping crypto companies from creating and selling their products.
At the same time, the same White House’s chaotic trade policy is undermining financial markets’ appetite for risk, leaving bitcoin in limbo, more than 20% off from its record high in January. And while the industry is grateful for all the attention, the White House’s embrace of some of crypto’s less savory aspects, like meme coins, has given serious investors pause.
Given the enormous potential for the $3 trillion industry in this moment, I checked in with Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor of international trade and the author of the 2021 book “The Future of Money,” about the forces disrupting financial technologies.
Fundamentally, Prasad brings a pragmatist’s view of crypto that is as refreshing as it is rare in a subject area that tends to attract zealots and loudmouths. We spoke over the phone shortly after the first-of-its-kind White House crypto summit earlier this month.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Nightcap: We just saw a pretty wild thing happen with the crypto summit — hard to imagine a scenario like that taking place under any previous administration. What were your takeaways?
Eswar Prasad: The crypto industry is kissing the ring, and I think it’s getting exactly what it wants from the Trump administration, which is the legitimacy provided by government oversight, coupled with what is almost certain to be quite light touch and non-inclusive regulation.
And I think we saw many of the major players in the crypto industry essentially using the opportunity to not just thank Trump, but try to make the point, which seemed to resonate with Trump, that this industry can power, in some sense, a resurgence of a certain part of the US economy.
