US President Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Potentially Affecting Crypto Users and Industry Leaders

US President Donald Trump has signed his first executive order potentially affecting crypto users and industry leaders, which many expected during his first days in office.

United States President Donald Trump has signed his first executive order that could impact crypto users and industry leaders, a move that many anticipated during his early days in office.

In a televised address from the Oval Office on Jan. 23, Trump was joined by his “AI and crypto czar” David Sacks, who briefed the U.S. president on the executive order. According to Sacks, the EO will establish an “internal working group to try to make America the world capital in crypto,” with himself leading the effort.

The order also reportedly bans “the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use” of a United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) and tasks the working group to look into the potential creation and maintenance of a national crypto stockpile and a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The working group, if established, would include the U.S. treasury secretary, attorney general, Securities and Exchange Commission chair, Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair, members of Trump’s cabinet and other agency heads.

The U.S. president went on to say that Sacks was going to “make a lot of money” from the executive orders on AI and crypto. According to the text of the crypto order, Trump’s directive also revokes a March 2022 EO from former President Joe Biden directing U.S. government agencies to establish a crypto regulatory framework.

Related: Trump promises to make US ’world capital’ of AI, crypto at Davos

It remains unclear how much authority any U.S. president has to enact certain laws and policies under executive orders. For instance, on Jan. 20, Trump signed an EO essentially revoking birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution — an effort that was quickly blocked by a federal judge as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Ordering federal agencies to halt any development of a potential CBDC was one of Trump’s campaign promises to the crypto industry during his run for the presidency. He also fulfilled a promise to pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht but had yet to comment on a pledge to have all Bitcoin (BTC) mining be powered by renewable energy by 2024.