US: Potential candidates for Trump’s crypto council revealed

Potential candidates for US President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets have been revealed as crypto industry executives vie for highly-coveted seats on the advisory council.

According to the New York Post, the executives include former Kraken general counsel Marco Santori, Ripple co-founder Brad Garlinghouse, podcast host Frank Chaparro, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek.

The list is by no means exhaustive, and potential candidates for the advisory council will reportedly be selected based on industry experience.

President Trump’s recent executive order establishing the Working Group on Digital Asset Markets was broadly welcomed by the crypto industry as a seismic shift in the US government’s stance toward digital currencies.

President Donald Trump signs crypto executive order
President Trump’s executive order established a crypto advisory council, instructed the council to study the potential for a strategic digital asset reserve — potentially comprised of Bitcoin — and prohibited the development of a central bank digital currency in the US.

“The digital asset industry plays a crucial role in innovation and economic development in the United States,” the order read.

The executive action stipulated that individuals or designees across government agencies be included in the Working Group for Digital Asset Markets.

These offices included the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and others.

Personnel from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) were excluded from the list of mandatory positions on the council.

“Both tried to kill the industry through debanking and especially targeted my company, Custodia Bank. Both belong on the outside,” Custodia founder Caitlin Long said in response to the exclusion of both agencies.

On Feb. 5, the FDIC released 790 pages of correspondence between the government bureau and US firms attempting to offer crypto-related services to clients as part of a regulatory shift.

The document tranche included pause letters and requests for more information from crypto firms and banks, seemingly designed to stall the approval process.

As part of the document release, acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill expressed interest in collaborating with the president’s newly commissioned Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.

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