Opinion by: Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer, Komodo Platform
The Crypto Task Force held a press conference in early February 2025. It struck the wrong tone. While the task force gave lip service to regulatory clarity, the goal seemed to placate the crypto industry, not bring about change that empowers individuals.
On Jan. 23, the president established a working group for digital assets to propose a federal regulatory framework around issuing and operating digital assets, including stablecoins and a Bitcoin reserve. These goals must be expanded upon, and it seems they are, as the development of a strategic reserve is now underway.
Instead of perpetuating the same discussion on “regulatory clarity” that the industry has been having with officials for years, the task force should take a similar approach to crypto matters as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been working in feverish haste to cut federal agencies and programs that it has deemed wasteful.
What the force should do
Instead, the Crypto Task Force should expose the perils of central bank inflationary money that puts humanity on a neverending treadmill toward desperation. It should cultivate a spirit of competition and adopting decentralized, permissionless currencies.
The Task Force should persuade lawmakers to adopt a laissez-faire crypto structure while effectively stamping out the rampant fraud by the truly bad actors who exploit people’s false hopes of quick riches. The Crypto Task Force should put out press releases warning people about obvious scams. It should also teach people the virtues of proof-of-work and the follies of many proof-of-stake coins.
The goal of Trump’s crypto task force should be simple: Establish a freedom-focused growth trajectory for the crypto industry in the US without delay.
The freedom age
Trump has clarified that he wants to promote the responsible growth and use of crypto. Such recommendations only hold as much merit as they grant entrepreneurs the freedom to take risks and curtail massive corporations from rolling out a digital panopticon with centralized cryptocurrencies.
Recent: SEC task force continues meeting with firms over crypto regulations
If the US is to be competitive with countries like the United Arab Emirates, the US must create a regulatory sandbox that enables founders to develop technology — including controversial technologies like decentralized coin mixers — in legal gray areas without the fear of prison or jail time so long as they are not blatantly breaking pre-existing law.
It’s time to let the market decide
Before Trump was elected, US crypto founders contended with seemingly arbitrary Securities and Exchange Commission witch hunts, which have ensnared even the most respected crypto institutions, such as Coinbase and Kraken.
The SEC went after Ripple for issuing an alleged unregistered security, but Ripple enjoyed significant wins in that case, especially when selling tokens to institutions. Countless founders have been de-banked in the US for having founded even crypto-adjacent companies. That suggests there has been an all-out war by Washington and big banks against the industry. That has to end, and the damage that has been done must be repaired. The Crypto Task Force cannot protect big banks against crypto. It must let the market decide.
Although many suits have been dropped, lawmakers have their work cut out for them. So much has changed since the 20th century, when the US was a world leader in the development of the internet. It has fallen far behind in crypto.
What the US needs now is innovation, not crypto red tape. The world has Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) laws. The Crypto Task Force mustn’t waste time developing a separate set of AML and KYC laws. Instead of studying the feasibility of a Bitcoin reserve, just put the Bitcoin confiscated from Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road, under the management of the Treasury and call it a day instead of selling it.
The Crypto Task Force must work now to build a renewed spirit of technological innovation in the United States. Countries in Asia have demonstrated a higher level of participation at the retail level. The US needs a strategy to educate and empower the retail investing public to partake in exciting and new markets like blockchain and AI. The US must switch from a conservative approach to crypto toward a progressive approach akin to what we’ve seen in the UAE.
The US has already suffered a brain drain, as entrepreneurs have left to pursue opportunities in friendlier jurisdictions. If the US had developed a welcoming Bitcoin approach, El Salvador could have never attracted talent from the US.
Too much freedom has already been lost in the US. The Trump administration must unleash the crypto-anarchists with the enthusiasm of DOGE in the spirit of some of the US’s greatest freedom thinkers, like Henry David Thoreau and others.
Long ago, the US fell behind in the crypto arm’s race. It will take work to catch up, and the more radical the approach taken by the Crypto Task Force, the quicker the gap can be closed.
If it doesn’t, you can bet we crypto-anarchists will be storming the gates.
Opinion by: Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer, Komodo Platform.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.