Bitcoin Approaches Record High as SEC Announces Plan to Revamp Crypto Laws

Bitcoin reached a record high of $109,071 on Monday when Trump, who has promised to be a "crypto president," was sworn in, but fell when crypto was not included in a flurry on Day One.

Bitcoin approached the record high hit in the previous session on Tuesday in choppy trading after the top U.S. market regulator announced a plan to revamp laws for the sector.

Bitcoin hit a record high of $109,071 on Monday as Trump, who has promised to be a "crypto president", was sworn in, but fell as crypto was not included in a flurry of day one executive orders.

Bitcoin prices rose 3.8%, while ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, gained 1.4% as the market recovered from some of that disappointment.

The new acting head of the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Tuesday that the agency had formed a task force to chart a course for regulating digital assets, in the first major move by the Trump administration to overhaul crypto policy.

“The president has moved quickly on his agenda,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a phone interview. “The SEC has made it clear they understand that and want to be a part of that.”

Some analysts have warned of volatility until the Trump administration announces specific rules that the crypto industry has been clamoring for.

“The digital asset market was left disappointed not to see any mention of digital assets in the inauguration speech or the day one executive orders,” said Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research.

“I believe that Bitcoin will continue to fall until an announcement is made by the Trump administration on digital assets. A drop back below $100,000 seems inevitable.”

A Trump-themed "meme coin" called $TRUMP, which debuted on Friday evening, slid on Tuesday, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinMarketCap.

Another Trump-linked crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, said on Monday that it had closed an initial token sale for $300 million and will issue more tokens. While Trump has pledged to delegate asset management to his children, ethics experts have criticized his cryptocurrency ventures for creating conflicts of interest and stoking speculation in a volatile asset class.

The task force at the SEC will help draw clear regulatory lines, provide paths for registration, develop frameworks for disclosure and deploy enforcement resources, the office of SEC Acting Chair Mark Uyeda said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Uyeda and fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce were preparing to launch the crypto shift, Reuters reported.

Trump is expected to announce executive orders later this week to further boost the use of Bitcoin, according to Reuters and other media outlets.

At the start of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week, stablecoin issuer Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire told the Reuters Global Markets Forum that he expects executive orders imminently that will allow banks to trade cryptocurrency, offer crypto investments to wealthy clients and hold it in portfolios.