The order will revoke existing executive guidance on digital currency, establish a presidential task force, and ban central banks from issuing tokens.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning so-called central bank digital currencies and establishing an executive group to examine the future of digital assets in the United States.
On Jan. 23, as part of a flurry of orders the White House has issued since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump signed an order titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology.”
The 1,300-word executive order said it would “promote United States leadership in digital assets and financial technology while protecting economic liberty.”
In a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier on Jan. 23, Trump reiterated his intent to make the United States “the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto.”
First, the order bans central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on the basis that they “threaten the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States.”
It defines a CBDC as a form of digital money or monetary value “that is a direct liability of the central bank.”
“Agencies are hereby prohibited from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs within the jurisdiction of the United States or abroad,” the order said.
Second, it established a new executive commission called the “President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.”
According to the order, that group would work within the National Economic Council and would be chaired by David Sacks, the White House’s special adviser for artificial intelligence and crypto.
The working group would also include several Cabinet-level members including the secretary of the Treasury and the attorney general.
Financial regulators like the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the chairman of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission would also be asked to sit in the group.
The group, according to the order, is directed to “propose a federal regulatory framework governing the issuance and operation of digital assets, including stablecoins.”
Additionally, it would be asked to “evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile.”
