The crypto shift. In his final year in office, former President Joe Biden introduced the U.S.’s first national strategy for digital assets. His administration’s law extended IRS tax reporting requirements to decentralized platforms, placing wallet providers and other non-custodial players under stricter scrutiny. The goal: regulate digital assets like traditional financial instruments to “address the tax evasion risks posed by digital assets.”
Biden’s law treated DeFi platforms like centralized banks, requiring them to report transaction data and user information to the IRS—just like brokers or traditional financial institutions.
Trump’s repeal. Four years later, Trump has signed an executive order repealing that IRS rule. It’s the first pro-crypto legislation passed under the new administration, and it removes one of the most burdensome requirements for DeFi platforms.
Representative Mike Carey, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said:
“The DeFi Broker Rule needlessly hindered American innovation, infringed on the privacy of everyday Americans, and was set to overwhelm the IRS with an overflow of new filings that it doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle during tax season.”
“By repealing this misguided rule, President Trump and Congress have given the IRS an opportunity to return its focus to the duties and obligations it already owes to American taxpayers instead of creating a new series of bureaucratic hurdles.”
What’s changed? While crypto users must still report their earnings to the IRS, platforms themselves are no longer required to report user activity directly.
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The repeal frees wallet providers and decentralized protocols from filing transaction-level data with the government—a win for crypto advocates pushing for more autonomy and privacy.
Following the repeal, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies saw a modest price bump, riding the wave of enthusiasm across crypto communities.
What’s next? With DeFi rules rolled back, the Trump administration is turning to stablecoins. At a White House crypto summit on March 6, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized that maintaining the dollar’s dominance may depend on stablecoins—cryptos designed to hold a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar.
“Stable” by design, these coins avoid the volatility of assets like Bitcoin. The administration sees them as a strategic tool to strengthen the U.S. dollar—and as a personal opportunity for the president.
Trump enters the crypto chat. In late March, World Liberty Financial, a crypto company with ties to the Trump family, announced USD1, a new stablecoin pegged to the dollar. It’s the clearest sign yet that Trump isn’t just shaping crypto policy—he’s joining the market.
This isn’t his first move. Before taking office, Trump launched $TRUMP, a memecoin whose token distribution raised eyebrows: only 10% went public, while 89% remained in the hands of companies linked to the president.
Image | Gage Skidmore | Art Rachen (Unsplash)
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