Trump’s “Crypto Council” Takes Shape With Pro-Bitcoin Advocates

On Sunday, December 22, President-elect Donald Trump named Bo Hines and Stephen Miran to two key cabinet positions surrounding the economy. 

Bo Hines, a former college football player and Republican nominee for the House of Representatives, will serve as the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets Executive Director, a group that Trump calls the “Crypto Council”, while Stephan Miran, a former Treasury Department official, will chair the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

Former College Football Star Bo Hines Appointed Advisor On Trump “Crypto Council”

In the announcement made via a Truth Social post, Trump stated that the Council of Advisers for Digital Assets is a newly formed advisory group composed of “luminaries from the crypto industry” and headed by David Sachs – the new White House Crypto and AI Czar, spearheading the administration’s crypto and AI efforts. 

Hines will work alongside Sachs to “foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space” while ensuring that industry leaders are provided with the resources they need to succeed. “Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish, and remain a cornerstone of our nation’s technological advancement,” wrote Trump. 

In 2022, Hines received an endorsement from Trump and funding from pro-crypto political action committees (PACs) during his unsuccessful Congressional race in North Carolina’s 13th District. This year, the 29-year-old ran once again for the House in the state’s 6th District but lost in the primaries to other Republican candidates. 

During his first election campaign, Hines received backing from Ryan Salame, a former executive of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who is currently serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance law violations for making unlawful political contributions. 

Despite his role, Hines does not have a history of making comments related to the crypto industry. 

Former Twitter And Yahoo Executive Sriram Krishnan To Serve As Trumps Senior Advisor On AI

Alongside Hines, Trump also named Sriram Krishnan, a former general partner at venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology. In his new position, he will work closely with David Sachs as part of a broader initiative to shape the U.S. policy on artificial intelligence.  

Krishnan, who’s served in leadership roles at Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, and Snap, also co-hosts a popular tech podcast called ‘The Aarthi and Sriram Show’ with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy. The show features high-profile guests from the tech industry. Krishnan departed from his position at a16z in November, ahead of his appointment to Trump’s cabinet. 

Pro-Bitcoin Ex-Treasury Official Stephen Miran Will Advise Trump On Domestic And International Economic Policy

Earlier on Sunday, Trump nominated Stephen Miran, an ex-Treasury official and pro-Bitcoin advocate, as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. This agency will advise the President-elect on domestic and international economic policy. 

Miran was also a senior advisor for economic policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury during Trump’s first term. His role included advising the President on fiscal support during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Before his appointment, Miran served as the senior strategist at Hudson Bay Capital Management, a hedge fund that contributed to Trump-affiliated PACs during this year’s election. 

He has been heavily critical of the Biden administration’s economic policies. In July, Miran co-wrote a paper accusing current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of manipulating the markets to “clandestinely” stimulate the economy. 

During his appearance in ‘The Bitcoin Layer’ podcast earlier this month, he said that financial regulation is “excessively burdensome” and prevents banks from lending into the economy as much as they would want, which he believes can really “inhibit” innovation in sectors like the crypto-economy. 

Trump Continues Delivering On His Crypto Promises 

Trump’s latest appointments reflect his continued backing of the crypto sector. During his campaign, the billionaire real-estate mogul promised to turn the U.S. into the “world capital of crypto,” which helped him gain massive support from industry players. He has appointed other pro-crypto advocates, including Elon Musk to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), and Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Atkins’ nomination will be key because industry experts hope he will dampen the agency’s current strategy of “regulation by enforcement” against the crypto industry, which has been crucial in stifling innovation and growth. Trump has promised to enact a policy framework that will be more accommodating to the sector and proposed shifting oversight from the SEC to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He is widely expected to sign an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve to back the U.S. dollar as a hedge against inflation and reduce the national debt, which stands at a staggering $36 trillion.

Since his re-election on November 5, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) recorded multiple all-time highs before breaching the coveted $100,000 mark earlier this month. 

At the time of writing, the flagship cryptocurrency is trading at $95,364 – down 0.98% over the past 24 hours.