Executive Ordering: How does Trump's dish line up to Biden's takeaway?

Newly minted President Trump issued a whopping 20 executive orders on his inauguration day, more than any other President, and following on from that record setting move and a few days later issued an Executive Order concerning crypto. Amid the Trump memecoin launch and the SEC pivot away from regulation by enforcement, how does the Trump crypto executive order stack up against the Biden Administration's Executive Order on crypto.

Sleepy Executive Order?

On March 9 2022, with Bitcoin a mere USD $41,000 and with 3 Arrows Capital, Celsius and a plucky exchange named FTX all still going strong, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14067 titled "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets". Promised and Delivered Swiftly

Fast forward 3 years and Trump campaigned on promises to end Gary Gensler's reign at the SEC. President Trump’s crypto Executive Order is titled in all caps: "STRENGTHENING AMERICAN LEADERSHIPIN DIGITAL FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY" It revokes Executive Order 14067 (Biden's 2022 order) and directs the secretary of the Treasury to revoke the Treasury 2022 Framework on Digital Assets as well as all other policies and guidance based on the Biden Order.

Word Cloud

Let's start by looking at a word cloud of the Biden Order:

Versus the Trump Order:

Even just from a word cloud the absence of the word "risks", "international" and "sec" from Trump's order stands out. The word "risk" only appears twice in the Trump Order, in one of those appearances seeking to protect the public from the "risk" of Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Comparing the Orders

Below is a table trying to line up some of the comparable aspects of the two orders, which draws a stark comparison:

Assessing Impact

While some have criticized the Trump Order as not delivering on promises fast enough, 180 days for a report is similar to the deadline in the Biden Order. Given the recent pivot at the SEC, even an end to regulation-by-enforcement and a friendlier approach to crypto will have a huge impact, and if backed up by a positive Working Group report, US support for crypto and digital finance will only continue to grow.

By Steven Pettigrove, Michael Bacina, and Luke Higgins