With sensible regulation, the USA can become a crypto superpower: Eric Trump

According to Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of President-elect Donald Trump, a set of “sensible” regulatory policies can help make the US a cryptocurrency superpower.

Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Monday, Eric Trump said that he has “been a big fan of crypto for a long time” and that his father intends to “make America the crypto capital of the world.” “. Return to the White House.

His comments come shortly after the price of Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, rose above $100,000 for the first time.

The highly anticipated milestone was hailed as a milestone for digital assets as investors grew increasingly confident that the new US administration will seek to solidify the crypto industry’s place in financial markets.

Bitcoin, which is up a whopping 137% since the start of the year, has since fallen back below the six-figure mark. According to Coin Metrics, the flagship digital currency was last traded at around $99,808.62.

“The modern banking system is outdated. It’s only a matter of time before crypto not only catches up, but truly leaps forward. So in many ways we are incredibly excited,” Eric Trump said.

“I think America will be the crypto capital of the world. I fully support it. My father fully supports it. Our family, you know, totally agrees with it. We believe in DeFi…We believe this is the way of the future.” And again, America better move forward or we’ll leave a lot behind,” he added.

DeFi refers to decentralized finance, a system of applications that aim to replicate traditional financial instruments using cryptocurrency.

President-elect Donald Trump recently announced plans to appoint Paul Atkins as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The appointment could fulfill one of his key campaign promises to the crypto industry: to replace Gary Gensler, who under his leadership has become something of a crypto villain due to the agency’s regulation-through-enforcement approach to the industry.

When asked whether his father was considering regulatory or deregulatory measures in the crypto space – and what those policies might look like in practice, Eric Trump replied: “It looks like it’s transparent. This is it.”

“People in the crypto industry are frustrated that no one has ever come up with a sensible plan to regulate an industry. “They’re OK with regulation, but they just want guidelines, and that’s what they said,” Eric Trump said.

“We will have a clear roadmap and hopefully the rest of the world will follow that. Hopefully we can lead by example because that is what we as Americans should do. And hopefully we really are the world’s crypto superpower,” he added.

Eric Trump said Elon Musk will play a “big” role in setting the White House’s policy agenda for the future, describing the billionaire tech leader as “the modern-day Albert Einstein.”

Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences, Musk was named by Donald Trump as co-leaders of an efficiency drive aimed at significantly cutting government spending, scaling back regulation and restructuring government agencies.

“I think we want to see efficiency. I think we want to see a productive society. I think we want to see real innovation again. I think we want the government to get out of the way of great companies. “Businesses thrive, let capitalism work, let the greatest democracy in the world do what it does,” Eric Trump said.

“Unfortunately, that has not been the case in America for the last four years, and it will be the same again. But I think Elon will play an important role in making sure that all happens,” he added.

—CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report.