Circle CEO expects imminent US executive orders to widen crypto

By Lananh Nguyen and Divya Chowdhury

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire expects U.S. executive orders “imminently” from incoming President Donald Trump, which he said could allow banks to trade crypto, offer crypto investments to wealthy clients and hold it in portfolios.

Circle is the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, a digital token pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. USDC is the world’s second largest stablecoin by market value and ranked as the eighth largest cryptocurrency by CoinGecko.

Trump has promised to be a “crypto president” and is expected to issue executive orders aimed at reducing crypto regulatory roadblocks and promoting widespread adoption of digital assets following his inauguration on Monday.

The incoming president’s own newly-created cryptocurrency soared on Monday to nearly $12 billion in market value.

Allaire said he would like to see the repeal of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which he said “effectively made it punitive for banks and financial institutions and corporations even to hold crypto assets on their balance sheet”.

“That’s something I think to watch closely in terms of EOs (executive orders),” Allaire said during an interview with the Reuters Global Markets Forum at the start of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week.

“I’m strongly in favour of repealing it and I would hope that President Trump would take that action,” Allaire said, adding that Circle already counted banks as commercial partners.

Allaire also expects renewed activity from Congress on digital asset regulations.

“We expect Committee work to be very active, literally in the coming weeks,” he said.

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