Dozens of crypto organizations have asked President Donald Trump to support policy initiatives his administration can implement as Congress continues to negotiate next steps on market structure legislation, a priority for the industry in Washington.
The letter, led by the recently formed Solana Institute for Policy Studies and signed by organizations such as the Blockchain Association, Digital Chamber, Crypto Council for Innovation, and DeFi Education Fund, focused on what they described as “immediate actionable measures to complement legislative efforts.”
Legislative efforts, particularly Senate talks on the details of a bill that could be the final answer to the House Digital Asset Market Transparency Act, have been delayed well beyond the original deadline set by President Trump and his allies. But along the way, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have embarked on a number of crypto policy pursuits.
The industry called on the president to “ensure that developers of permissionless protocols and front-ends with available sources are not subject to enforcement while relevant rulemaking progresses,” and that the SEC and CFTC protect people’s ability to self-custody their crypto assets. The group called for protecting decentralized finance (DeFi) innovations across institutions.
The letter, signed by a range of crypto businesses, projects and investment companies including Uniswap, Paradigm and FalconX, also calls for a number of tax considerations from the Internal Revenue Service, including guidance clarifying that mining and staking rewards should not be taxed until the assets are sold, and that small profits generated from the purchase of goods and services should be ignored as taxable events.
Many of the tax-related questions are similar to bills proposed by senators such as Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee’s virtual currency subcommittee.
“Just one year into the Presidency, the Trump Administration and Congress have created an unprecedented opportunity for investors, users, and builders of cryptocurrencies,” the letter said, a direct reference to President Trump, who has been a strong advocate for the advancement of cryptocurrencies and has financial ties to many ventures in the field. Industry officials said he could help with “a strong whole-of-government approach to cryptocurrencies to achieve the goal of making the United States the crypto capital of the world.”
The industry is also calling for an end to the Department of Justice’s pursuit of “developers of DeFi technologies that include open source software protocols that are decentralized and have no permission for civil liability issues.” The Department of Justice has successfully prosecuted the developers of cryptocurrency mixers Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, with the latter being sentenced to at least four years in prison each.
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