Circle CEO Allaire: Trump Will Act ‘Imminently’ on Banks’ Crypto Trading

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said he anticipates that President Donald Trump will move quickly on new cryptocurrency rules.

Allaire said he expects executive orders “imminently” from the new president, allowing banks to trade crypto, offer crypto investments to wealthy clients and hold it in portfolios, Reuters reported Monday (Jan. 20).

Trump has pledged to be a “crypto president” and is expected to issue executive orders to lower crypto regulatory roadblocks and promote widespread adoption of digital assets after taking office Monday, per the report.

He has also minted his own cryptocurrency, a meme coin that jumped as high as $15 billion over the weekend and sparked criticism in the crypto industry.

Allaire said he hopes the administration rescinds the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which he argued “effectively made it punitive for banks and financial institutions and corporations even to hold crypto assets on their balance sheet,” according to the report.

“I’m strongly in favor of repealing it, and I would hope that President Trump would take that action,” Allaire said, per the report, adding that Circle already counted banks as commercial partners.

Anger over the meme coin aside, the crypto sector has been enthusiastic about the new administration after four years of a presidency that they viewed as hostile to their sector. Trump tapped Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and crypto advocate, to oversee the SEC. He has also promised to set up the new position of AI and crypto czar, to be held by David Sacks, seen as a regulation skeptic.

Allaire said he also expects a resurgence in activity from Congress on digital asset regulations, according to the report.

“We expect committee work to be very active, literally in the coming weeks,” he said, per the report.

Circle is the issuer of the USDC stablecoins, the second-most popular digital asset of its kind. Stablecoins are increasingly seen as a viable payment option, bridging the gap between crypto and traditional finance.

“Where stablecoins offer superior benefits, customers will naturally gravitate toward them,” FV Bank CEO Miles Paschini told PYMNTS this month.