As with any fledgling romance, Trumpworld and big money cryptocurrency interests were bound to have their first fight at some point.
It was late June heading into July, and two highly anticipated bills were in the pipeline to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s promises to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” and usher in what his supporters believed would be a “golden age” of digital assets. Congress had one shot at passing something before the August recess.
Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, and Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm known as a16z, were, according to two Republicans involved in the negotiations, calling around to members to see if they could combine components of the two bills, known as the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act. The former more narrowly covered the realm of stablecoins; the latter was a more ambitious overhaul of how crypto products are regulated more broadly. Joining them together would give the industry what it failed to get during President Joe Biden’s term—a comprehensive framework that would give the industry regulatory certainty and a clear path to profit, legally, off of these digital assets for the foreseeable future.
But the White House was not happy, and made sure to let the two power players know it. To the Trump administration, this attempt at political maneuvering was slowing down a much awaited win for crypto.
“We said, you’re just fuckin’ wrong,” a senior administration source involved in negotiations over crypto legislation tells me, requesting anonymity to describe private deliberations over the two most significant pieces of legislation for the industry.
“They were being hissy pissy about the way to do things,” the senior administration official says. “But you know, it’s not just their call.” The White House promised the firms they’d get their more prized regulatory overhaul—but it would be separate, and they’d have to wait.
Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and the White House did not return requests for comment.
It’s been pretty clear for quite some time: Trumpworld loves crypto. Almost everywhere you look in the second Trump administration, there’s a crypto connection. The president, most notably, has his own memecoin, and his two eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., are involved in a variety of crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial and its stablecoin.
Despite cryptocurrency being immensely profitable for the Trump family and vice versa, though, cracks are beginning to emerge in a key alliance that helped bring the president back to power. The dustup around stablecoin and market structure legislation could be the first preview of more fissures to come.
It doesn’t have the flair, the trappings, the egos, or the household name personalities of the Musk-Trump breakup, and the gripes involved aren’t necessarily even about ideology or policy.
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