WASHINGTON, DC — Donald Trump was elected president again a year ago this week, although some crypto industry lobbyists quietly say they feel like they have aged many years during a tumultuous 12 months, which saw a series of high peaks and deep frustrations in the young sector’s quest for American politics.
President Trump returned to the White House with broad support from crypto voters and optimism from many of America’s most prominent industry executives that they can secure their place in the U.S. financial system. In many ways, this trust in the politician has paid off.
He quickly issued executive orders demanding progress on friendly crypto policies and the creation of bitcoin. reserve to hide government assets as a long-term investment.
“Since day one, he has issued executive orders and directed agencies to pay attention to digital assets and how blockchain can increase transparency in government,” Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone said in a statement to CoinDesk.
In Congress, the industry has gone from pariah status in 2022 (during its struggles with bankrupt companies and fraud lawsuits) to a top priority in 2025, with significant support from a president who has continually made demands of allied lawmakers. In a stunning example of rapid bipartisan legislation, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS) became law, the first major effort in US crypto policy to do so.
The Trump administration’s Treasury Department and banking agencies have already begun trying to sort out its implementation — a lengthy process that plays out through public comment periods and ultimately through multiple rule proposals.
The GENIUS Act was intended to accompany the most significant legislation that would establish rules of conduct for U.S. crypto markets beyond stablecoin issuers. Although the effort passed the House of Representatives again this year, the Senate has yet to act.
As he continues to goad Congress, Trump has made significant appointments to head America’s financial regulators. At the top of the list of crypto advocates is Paul Atkins, who was confirmed to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is a crypto proponent who has made new friendly policies his top priority within the agency. He recently promised concrete rule proposals in the coming months.
Trump also installed Jonathan Gould, a former crypto lawyer, atop the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
“The last year has brought about what many thought impossible: a complete reversal of federal crypto policy, transforming America from a jurisdiction defined by regulation by enforcement to one that is racing to lead the global digital economy,” said Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute.
On the other hand, his administration’s progress on crypto, Trump’s unstable leadership has potentially threatened other parts of the agenda. The current, prolonged federal government shutdown — the longest on record, breaking the record set during Trump’s first term — has contributed to the Senate’s legislative work, including the most important U.S. crypto policy goal: the Market Structure Bill, going off the rails.
Polls have consistently shown that voters blame Trump and Republican lawmakers more than Democrats for the shutdown. The budget impasse not only redirects lawmakers’ energies toward resolving this conflict, but it has also put out of work federal workers who were supposed to focus on drafting the legislation.
Even without shutting down government operations, legislative negotiations were at a precarious point, with some Republicans balking at the idea that the Senate’s version of the House’s Digital Asset Market Clarity Act was ready to move forward. Some crypto lobbyists have privately shifted their expectations to 2027 before Congress completes that work, as next year’s midterm elections are expected to turn Capitol Hill into a political battleground in which bipartisan action could become difficult.
The government’s closed doors have also blocked industry efforts to gain product approval and public offerings that require SEC approval.
And despite Trump’s orders to create crypto reserves at the federal level, this project has not moved beyond the planning stage. Those working there have suggested that congressional action may be needed to overcome the final hurdle in creating the funds. Like other legislative efforts that go beyond market structure – like overhauling the tax code for crypto activities – this one could wait in line for a while.
Meanwhile, although the crypto industry has built a long list of allies among Democratic lawmakers, Trump has drawn heavy criticism from opposition party members for his personal stake in digital asset companies. There are few areas of the industry that don’t touch on his and his family’s interests, and potential conflicts of interest for the president came to a head when the largest holders of his memecoin were invited to a private party with him.
Most of the major investors in Trump’s play were foreign nationals, and the administration declined to identify those who attended the dinner and rubbed shoulders with the president.
Furthermore, Trump’s successes in appointing regulators, such as at the SEC and OCC, and in slowly overhauling the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, have been somewhat thwarted by challenges, such as having to withdraw his first choice as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Most of the industry’s prominent executives have moved closer to Trump, and White House crypto events have seen CEOs and founders – such as the heads of Coinbase, Ripple, Tether and Gemini – enthusiastically participating in the president’s celebrations. But even as these relations have strengthened, the president’s popularity in public opinion has fallen. In this first year of his second administration, Trump’s approval ratings have declined rapidly to levels unseen by other recent presidents, with 58 percent disapproving of the job he is doing — particularly young voters who had been relatively enthusiastic about giving him a return to the White House.
While this week saw a number of state-level elections seen as potential bellwethers for the congressional midterms a year from now, voters’ feelings toward Trump’s presidency were potentially on display. A year after re-electing Trump, they rebounded significantly and supported Democratic candidates. If this holds through the 2026 midterms, Democrats could make gains in Congress and possibly retake the majority in the House, ending the logjam Republicans hold in the executive and legislative branches of government.
If this happens on Trump’s watch, his crypto agenda may need to adapt to more openly bipartisan cooperation during his final two years in office. But Trump’s inaugural year has already brought more policy progress than the industry has ever achieved before, and advocates say it has had significant results on American business.
“We’ve seen digital asset companies relocate their operations, expand their presence and increase their headcount thanks to President Trump and a pro-crypto Congress,” said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association who was a recent U.S. commodities regulator in this administration.
