Trump crypto appointment spurs optimism

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President-elect Donald Trump appears to be working down his crypto promises list via another personnel decision. 

Trump said Sunday that Bo Hines will serve as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. David Sacks, the PayPal co-founder who Trump tapped to be the US government’s AI and crypto czar earlier this month, will chair this group.

Hines will work with Sacks “to foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space, while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish, and remain a cornerstone of our nation’s technological advancement,” he added.

A former NC State (and Yale) football player, Hines sought to represent North Carolina’s 13th Congressional district in 2022, but lost that election to Democrat Wiley Nickel. He launched a campaign in December 2023 to represent the state’s 6th Congressional district — endorsing Trump that same month before posting this to X in January:

Trump had referenced a US crypto council in July during his address at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. He said it was something he would assemble “immediately” before asking for a show of hands who wanted to be on it. The crowd roared.

The then-presidential candidate said the council’s task of designing crypto regulatory guidance would get done in 100 days. We’ll have to monitor that. 

Reuters reported last month that people at crypto companies Ripple, Kraken, Circle, Paradigm and a16z were among those wanting a seat at that table.

Trump’s ongoing engagement with the industry seems to show his pro-crypto rhetoric was not just lip service. A few days before that Reuters story ran, Trump nominated crypto-friendly Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the Department of Commerce.

The soon-to-be president also just met with Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek last week about crypto-related appointments and a bitcoin reserve.

Those congratulating Hines on X yesterday included crypto bigwigs Michael Saylor and Fred Thiel — leaders of two companies (MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital) which own roughly 490,000 BTC combined.

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