Trump Coin ETFs Are Exactly What the SEC Should Prevent
Allowing exchange-traded funds that magnify exposure to the first family’s memecoins would take crypto oversight in the wrong direction.
The crypto president.
Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg
Like many cryptophiles, I have been optimistic the Trump administration will make progress passing legislation that brings legal clarity to the industry. Over the past couple of years, a centrist consensus has been emerging in Washington, as embodied in the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, passed by the House in May. While FIT21 is not perfect, it is a major improvement over the current unsettled state of crypto regulation, and it lays the foundation for a productive future.
Legislative progress was stalled by the 2024 election, and the bill faced Senate opposition from both progressives, who preferred Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s more confrontational approach, and conservatives suspicious of new technologies. But Trump’s election sent Gensler back to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and brought some prominent crypto true believers into the administration coalition. So the way seemed clear for a sensible regulatory regime to support legitimate innovation of real economic value, while protecting ordinary investors from fraud and delusional optimism, and the financial system from criminal disruption.