While campaigning for president, Donald Trump made a stop at the Bitcoin 2024 conference to establish himself as the candidate who would fight for the rights of Bitcoin users and embrace this new financial technology. However, “Shitcoin President” is a more apt representation of his actions thus far.
Just this past week, Trump pardoned Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who had been serving prison time due to the crypto exchange’s relaxed approach to anti-money laundering enforcement. Prior to the pardon, Binance made a $2 billion deal that also involved World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded by members and affiliates of the Trump family. The deal is expected to lead to tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the Trump family’s crypto project. According to a Financial Times investigation, Trump-affiliated crypto companies have made $1 billion over the past year.
On top of that, several major entities in the crypto industry, such as Coinbase and Ripple, were also included in a list of donors to Trump’s White House ballroom project that was released this week.
Of course, the TRUMP memecoin was also launched around the same time Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, along with a MELANIA memecoin that launched a few days later. A recently filed lawsuit claims that Melania Trump was used as “window dressing” for a scam perpetrated by other parties.
The TRUMP memecoin was part of a controversy regarding access to the president, as a Trump-attended dinner was held for the top holders of the memecoin earlier this year. On top of that, the TRUMP chart does not look good for those who bought the memecoin around the time of the inauguration.
Trump’s activities in crypto are mostly par for the course when it comes to that industry, as what started as a way of decentralizing the global, digital financial system with Bitcoin has evolved into much of the same sort of centralized, rent-seeking profiteering found in the legacy banking system. While there have indeed been some measures implemented by the Trump administration that benefit Bitcoin, it’s clear that the crypto-grifting and stablecoin focus has overshadowed those policies related to the original peer-to-peer digital cash system.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made it easier for banks to deal with crypto assets like bitcoin (it was just announced that even JPMorgan will accept bitcoin and ether as collateral for loans) and the cypherpunks were thrown a bone with the release of political prisoner and convicted Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht. This is in addition to a variety of other pro-Bitcoin stances that have been supported by executive order, but not yet enshrined by congressional legislation. That said, there has been a lot of additional crypto baggage that has come along with these positive developments for Bitcoin.
While the Biden Administration was perceived by the crypto world as far too anti-Bitcoin for much of its reign (until a sharp reversal near its end), the pendulum has now perhaps swung too far in the opposite direction, where crypto grifting and centralized rent-seeking via stablecoins and decentralized-in-name-only blockchains are too easily embraced.
Crypto people should consider the possibility that Gary Gensler isn't all that bad and they've fallen for propaganda from the likes of Coinbase and Ripple.
Do you think these crypto companies want to fight for you or exploit you?
— Kyle Torpey (@kyletorpey) January 14, 2025
Crypto exchanges and token issuers claimed they were fighting for the rights of crypto users when supporting the Trump campaign, but the reality is these centralized entities also had a clear financial interest in making sure the speculation built around memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and stablecoins was allowed to continue.
The acceptance of this sort of activity has become so blatant that there are worries that Sam Bankman-Fried (of FTX collapse infamy) could also receive a pardon, which is being resoundingly rejected by even the crypto industry as a bad idea. Prediction market Kalshi currently puts the odds of an SBF pardon this year at 14%.
everyone asking me for my take on this
here’s my take
SBF better not be next https://t.co/nxFQOsm3za
— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) October 23, 2025
Much of the rhetoric from the Trump White House has been focused on the use of blockchain technology to continue the economic dominance of the United States and the U.S. dollar via stablecoins. The popular use of stablecoins in the developing world is seen as a way to increase demand for U.S. treasuries, which have become less popular as the growing national debt remains an unresolved issue. Major purveyors of stablecoins regularly keep U.S. treasuries in their reserves to back the stablecoins, so increased demand for stablecoins means increased demand for US debt. This focus on continued dollar dominance is reflected by the fact that the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act has already been signed into law.
While former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was routinely mocked by crypto users and industry leaders for his stance on the emerging market during his time at the regulatory agency, many of those who are mainly focused on Bitcoin have pointed out that the current regime is in many ways worse due to the perceived acceptance of unsavory crypto projects and increasing centralization in the ecosystem.
Here is an insider's written account of the power structures controlling Ethereum — through Vitalik, his inner circle, the massive premine, and the Ethereum Foundation.
Their face when Gary Gensler was RIGHT. https://t.co/sOUFfrelD0 pic.twitter.com/bJwjiUwnQa
— grubles (@notgrubles) October 22, 2025
When searching for a signal amid the noise surrounding crypto under the Trump administration, the reality is that the desires of Bitcoin enthusiasts are being ignored. There are still no legally enshrined protections for open-source developers and node operators, and no tax exemption on bitcoin use in payments, which would put it on equal standing with foreign currencies. Even the status of the often-touted Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which is not necessarily viewed positively by all Bitcoin proponents due to the inherent centralization of custody involved, remains unclear.
That said, the passage of a crypto market structure bill, which may include some of the above-mentioned protections for Bitcoin users, is still expected to occur this year. It’s still the first year of Trump’s second term in office, but the administration will need to change course if it wants to be remembered for embracing Bitcoin rather than shitcoins.
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