The CEO of crypto exchange Binance said he expects U.S. President Trump’s “pro-crypto” legislation in the U.S. to spur regulators in other parts of the world to follow suit.
“We have moved from a period where there’s big regulatory uncertainty and in many sense, some regulatory hostility towards the industry, to one where the largest economy of the world said ‘we want to embrace crypto,'” Binance CEO Richard Teng told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore on Thursday.
Under the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in an effort to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.
“[If] you ask anybody in the crypto industry, people prefer the current administration compared to the last one,” Teng said.
Chao Deng, CEO of crypto fund manager HashKey Capital, who spoke alongside Teng at the CONVERGE event, shared that view, saying that under Trump, “the momentum is building, institutional [and] retail adoption [of crypto assets] is immense.”
Crypto reserve
The comments came after Trump pressed ahead with an executive order to establish a strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies for the U.S. using digital assets seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that in addition to Bitcoin, the strategic reserve would include ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token, and Cardano’s ADA coin.
The Binance CEO described the U.S. crypto reserve as a “landmark” issue. “The messaging is the largest government … the biggest capital market in the world is now holding Bitcoin as part of the reserve, [that’ll] cause many other governments to think through the issue, to sit up to say, should we start doing allocation into crypto and bitcoin?”
Bitcoin prices have fallen since Trump’s announcement of a strategic crypto reserve as details of the plan fell short of expectations. Investor enthusiasm toward assets perceived to be risky has also softened more broadly due to concerns over the impact of Trump’s tariff plans.
Teng downplayed the recent pullback in crypto markets as a “tactical retreat,” as — like any other asset class — it is not “immune” to macroeconomic situations. Nonetheless, Washington’s embrace of the digital assets and Trump’s nomination of several crypto-friendly legislators will provide “strong” long-term drivers, he said.
Since his victory in November, Trump has focused on appointing government leaders who support the cryptocurrency sector. Venture capitalist David Sacks, who Trump tapped as his crypto and artificial intelligence czar, joined Trump in the Oval Office for the signing of the order.
End of ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’
According to Teng, during the last administration, you had “Operation Choke Point 2.0” in progress — an alleged effort by regulators during the Biden presidency to pressure banks into severing ties with crypto. CNBC was unable to verify these claims.
Teng also said the industry faced “regulation via enforcement,” which made it extremely tough for it to grow.
Hashkey Capital’s Deng agreed that a return of banking services for crypto companies in the U.S. is one of the most important changes to come from the elections.
“They encourage and they allow banks to be involved with crypto. This is a very huge step for the crypto and Web3 industry,” he said, adding that banks will now feel more comfortable working with crypto-related clients.