March 5 (UPI) — The Trump administration is closing investigations into cryptocurrency marketplaces as President Donald Trump seeks to grow the United States’ footprint in the digital asset space.
Trump has taken several actions meant to signal his deregulation of cryptocurrency while calling for the United States to build a digital stockpile, moves that experts expect may lead consumers to be more comfortable investing in digital assets.
“Certainly at the moment the expectation is we are going to get a clearer regulatory framework. A more permissive regulatory approach,” William Luther, associate professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University, told UPI. “So individuals who may have otherwise been hesitant to purchase or use cryptocurrency will see that the government is more favorable to these assets than it was previously. That will give them a bit more confidence to enter into this space.”
Regulations and enforcement
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped two key cases against cryptocurrency marketplaces since Trump has taken office.
Last week, the SEC agreed to drop charges against Coinbase for allegedly illegally selling securities, according to Coinbase. The company, a cryptocurrency exchange marketplace, said in a statement that it was a case that “should never have been filed in the first place.”
Robinhood Cryptocurrency announced that the SEC was ending its investigation into the company over potential violations of securities law. Like Coinbase, Robinhood said in a statement that the investigation should not have happened.
“Robinhood Crypto always has and will always respect federal securities laws and never allowed transactions in securities,” Dan Gallagher, chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs Officer for Robinhood Markets, said in a statement. “As we explained to the SEC, any case against Robinhood Crypto would have failed.”
Both investigations were launched under the administration of former President Joe Biden, but Luther explains that Trump and Biden’s policies as they relate to cryptocurrency are not all that different.
“It’s not that the prior administration was opposed to crypto to the extreme,” he said. “Even Gary Gensler, when he was at the SEC, wasn’t stamping out cryptocurrencies. He even indicated at times that some of the things that they were trying to do to limit the reach of cryptocurrency, particularly to retail users, wouldn’t apply to assets like Bitcoin, which he described as not being a security.”
Gensler, the chair of the SEC under the Biden administration, was often characterized as aggressive when it came to enforcing regulations on cryptocurrency firms. His focus on the asset was primarily in mitigating fraud and penalizing fraudsters.
Cryptocurrency is the most common form of payment fraudsters are paid with in ransomware attacks, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Trump has nominated Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the SEC. Atkins is a former co-chair at the cryptocurrency advocacy group the Token Alliance.
Embracing crypto
In his remarks from Miami last week, Trump said he is committed to making America the “crypto capital.” His Jan. 23, executive order suggests he is interested in spurring along the adoption of digital assets in the United States and establishing a government stockpile.
Trump has commissioned the establishment of the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, charging it with identifying regulations, proposing regulatory frameworks and evaluating the potential creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
The government has long held cryptocurrencies, at least relative to the history of their existence. It has acquired cryptocurrencies by seizing them through its enforcement efforts, much like it has acquired cash, cars and other goods.
“Make no mistake. The U.S. government owns crypto because that’s what criminals have been using,” Aaron Klein, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told UPI. “Just like the U.S. owns some Ferraris too.”
Biden similarly commissioned research into cryptocurrency, directing the Federal Reserve to explore whether the government should create its own cryptocurrency in 2022.
Months later, the Federal Reserve came back with a recommendation for the government to explore creating a cryptocurrency that it referred to as a digital dollar.
“Innovation is one of the hallmarks of a vibrant financial system and economy,” then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “But as we have learned painfully from the past, innovation without appropriately addressing the impact of these developments can result in significant disruptions and harm to the financial system.”
The Trump Administration is not yet following up on this recommendation. In fact it is moving in the opposite direction. As part of Trump’s executive order, he has prohibited the Central Bank or any agency from establishing, issuing or promoting a digital currency in the United States or abroad.
$TRUMP
Hours before taking the oath of office, Trump launched a meme coin called $TRUMP. A meme coin is an often volatile form of cryptocurrency derived from internet memes.
Trump’s coin experienced an almost immediate spike in value after launching but has collapsed since. With its initial spike it was trading as high as $31. The current value is a fraction of a cent, down more than 97% since launching.
First lady Melania Trump also launched a coin just as Trump was taking office. $MELANIA has also plummeted in value since launching. A coin was worth about $2 when it launched and is now worth about $0.85.
The first family’s venture into cryptocurrency as they moved into the White House raises immense ethical concerns, Klein said.
“It’s a five-alarm bell fire,” he said. “There’s massive fraud in the meme coin space. Whatever the actual details of the Trump meme coin turn out to be, giving the appearance of legitimacy of a meme coin to the president-elect gives the impression that he is prioritizing his own wallet over the good of society.”
A chief ethical concern in a president, or president-elect, launching a new business venture is that it creates a conflict of interest. The president is uniquely positioned to have a direct impact on the business they own or are invested in. This is why presidents have historically divested from their business dealings while in office.
Trump has refused to do so. In 2017, again days before taking the oath of office, Trump announced he would not divest from the Trump Organization, a company that holds a majority of his investments and various business ventures.
Argentina is reckoning with an ethics conundrum involving its president and cryptocurrency as well. President Javier Milei has been accused of fraud for allegedly promoting the cryptocurrency $Libra.
Milei argued that he did not endorse or promote $Libra after sharing a link to a website that sells it in February.
“The world wants to invest in Argentina,” Milei said in the post sharing a link the cryptocurrency marketplace.
Following Milei’s alleged endorsement, the value of $Libra grew from a fraction of a cent to nearly $5 before falling. It is valued at a fraction of a cent again. Milei’s political opponents in the Argentine National Congress have called for him to be impeached.
Milei’s actions demonstrate the influence a president can have on the cryptocurrency trade, an influence Trump exercised when launching his meme coin. Likewise his broader embrace of cryptocurrency through policy and public comments signals to consumers that the United States is a crypto-friendly environment.
“When the president of the United States promotes an asset it tends to move the needle for people to buy it,” he said.
Robert Kiyosaki warned in a June 2 post on X that U.S. debt exposes taxpayers to a deeper financial problem. The renowned author of Rich Dad Poor Dad asked how a government that “takes 40% of everyone’s money” still runs up trillions in debt. His question links take-home pay, federal spending, and public distrust in one sharp critique.
The warning lands as U.S. debt sits near historic highs. Treasury data showed public debt outstanding at about $39.2 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects gross federal debt will reach $64 trillion by 2036 as federal spending continues to outpace revenue. That projection sharpens Kiyosaki’s warning that heavy tax collection still fails to stop Washington’s borrowing.
The 40% figure is not an official tax rate. Instead, it may reflect the combined impact of federal income taxes, payroll taxes, state taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes on wage earners. Because those obligations can consume a significant share of income, Kiyosaki appears to use 40% as a broad estimate of the tax burden many workers experience.
Kiyosaki extended his fiscal warning into markets in a May 31 post on X. He said gold rose 65% in one year, while savings accounts paid 4% annually. That comparison turned his debt criticism into an investment argument. It also pushed savers to weigh cash returns against a major hard-asset rally.
The well-known financial commentator also said central banks are moving from U.S. Treasuries into gold. That claim gained support this week after European Central Bank (ECB) data showed gold accounted for 27% of global official reserves at the end of 2025, surpassing U.S. Treasuries at 22%. The shift broadened his warning from household finances to global reserve strategy. In Kiyosaki’s view, growing demand for gold reflects concerns about debt-heavy government finance and the long-term stability of paper assets.
He wrote:
“FYI: Gold up 65% in 1 year. Savings pay 4% a year. Central banks dumping US Treasuries for gold. Get the picture?”
The warning extends beyond taxes and government debt. Kiyosaki has cautioned that a major market crash could escalate into a depression, leaving millions of people with significant losses and financial hardship. He attributes that risk to excessive debt, Federal Reserve policies, and declining confidence in government institutions. As a result, he continues to advocate holding gold, silver, and bitcoin, arguing that scarce assets offer protection when paper wealth, cash savings, and traditional financial markets come under pressure.
South Africa’s High Court has defined Bitcoin as ‘money’ and ‘capital’, clearing the way for the country’s central bank to regulate the export of cryptocurrency.
The Gauteng Division of the South African High Court has ruled that cryptocurrency, and specifically Bitcoin, is both money and capital, limiting the ability of South Africans to trade in the currency without official authorisation and departing from an earlier decision by the High Court.
Giving his ruling on 1 June in Mangundhla & Dangaiso v South African Reserve Bank, Judge Stuart Wilson departed from what he called the “clearly wrong” 2025 decision by the Pretoria branch of the Gauteng Division in Standard Bank of South Africa v South African Reserve Bank, which had taken the opposite position.
Whereas the Standard Bank ruling held that cryptocurrency’s inherently digital nature did not meet the definition of money, Judge Wilson instead focused on its purpose and use, writing: “To the extent that cryptocurrency is a financial asset that holds value and is used as a medium of exchange through which capital can be taken from within South Africa and placed beyond its borders, it does not matter that it may not be legal tender (in other words fiat currency), or that it exists as an entry on a digital ledger.”
Applicants (claimants) Square Mangundhla and Fungai Dangaiso brought the case against the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), its deputy governor and the minister of finance.
Mangundhla traded on the online cryptocurrency platform Luno, using Dangaiso’s account when he reached the permissible limit for trades on his own account.
While he made legal trades between 2015 and 2017, from 2018 to 2020, he transferred 1680 Bitcoin purchased in South Africa to wallets accessed through cryptocurrency exchanges abroad.
SARB, the country’s central bank, categorised these transactions as the export of Bitcoin and their rand value in contravention of the Export Control Regulations, and ordered Mangundhla to forfeit ZAR 6 million (GBP 274,000).
Wilson determined that capital “means any financial asset that is capable of holding value or being used as a medium of exchange”, adding that “even if capital is given the relatively narrow definition of any financial asset that is capable of holding value or being used as a medium of exchange, cryptocurrency is certainly capital”.
He rejected an argument that bitcoin’s intangible nature put it outside of this definition, saying: “It seems to me that Bitcoin is plainly capital in the sense that it is a financial asset that is capable of holding value and being used as a medium of exchange,” noting that Bitcoin can be used to purchase rand and is accepted by merchants as currency.
Wilson further found that the Bitcoin had been exported once it was “placed beyond the Reserve Bank’s jurisdiction” and as such the regulations applied, rejecting a further defence under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).
The applicants had also argued that the forfeiture should not apply to the currency held in the Luno wallets on the grounds that the regulations only allow for the seizure of money, but Judge Wilson also rejected this argument, writing that “Bitcoin’s general characteristics bring it well within any sensible conception of money” on the basis that it can be converted into fiat currency and used to purchase goods and services.
“In my view, Bitcoin is clearly money. The Bitcoin was correctly subject to forfeiture,” he concluded.
Mangundhla and Dangaiso were represented by Cape Town-based firm JM Attorneys, instructing advocates Eloize Eksteen SC and Anneline Roestorf.
SARB was represented by law firm GMI Attorneys, instructing Werner Lüderitz SC, Ernst Kromhout and Katlego Moloisane.
Crypto assets were regulated by South Africa by bringing them under the oversight of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in 2022. That made it one of several African countries to legalise and regulate digital assets in the past few years, including Ghana, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Morocco.
The Gauteng Division is the forum for an ongoing challenge to the South African Legal Sector Code, brought in April by three law firms who argue that its racial transformation objectives are unworkable.
Last year, the court introduced mandatory mediation for civil disputes.
Bitcoin’s latest pullback may have less to do with crypto-specific stress and more to do with Wall Street’s crowded trade in U.S. equities, according to Binance Research.
The institutional research arm of Binance said capital is being pulled into a narrow set of powerful themes in the S&P 500, leaving bitcoin on the sidelines. The firm pointed to the Cboe Dispersion Index, which has climbed to 42, its third-highest level on record.
A high dispersion reading suggests that market gains are heavily concentrated in a limited number of stocks or sectors. In the current cycle, Binance Research said investors are crowding into artificial intelligence, semiconductors, defense, energy, and commodities.
That creates a simple but important liquidity problem for bitcoin. When a few equity themes generate outsized returns, capital follows those trades. As money concentrates in stocks, less liquidity is available for crypto assets. Bitcoin then becomes a funding casualty rather than the source of the weakness.
The pattern is not new. Binance Research cited several past examples when intense equity-market rotations coincided with bitcoin declines.
In 2015, capital moved into FAANG stocks and biotech, while bitcoin fell 20%. In 2016, a defensive equity rotation matched an 18% bitcoin drop. Late-cycle FAANG strength and the ICO collapse in 2018 came alongside a 68% fall in bitcoin.
The same pattern appeared again in 2022, when energy stocks surged, and bitcoin lost 50%. Binance Research also pointed to the fourth quarter of 2025, when AI and semiconductor stocks gained more than 200%, while Bitcoin declined 39%.
The latest pressure is smaller but still meaningful. In the second quarter of 2026, Binance Research said a combined rotation into AI, defense, and energy has coincided with an 11% bitcoin decline.
The firm described the current backdrop as one of bitcoin’s strongest multi-theme capital diversions. Growth capital is moving into AI infrastructure and applications. Geopolitical hedge capital is flowing into defense and energy. Inflation-hedge demand is shifting toward commodities.
Bitcoin, in that setup, is competing for attention on several fronts at once.
Still, Binance Research said history points to a possible rebound. In past periods when the Cboe Dispersion Index reached extreme levels, Bitcoin often found a bottom within zero to 20 weeks. The median was about two weeks in cases without a crypto-native crisis.
That distinction matters. Binance Research said the current downturn does not appear to be caused by a major internal crypto shock. If the weakness is mainly due to temporary capital diversion into equities, the firm said Bitcoin may recover faster once those crowded trades cool.
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