Xapo Bank launches Bitcoin-backed USD loans targeting hodlers  

United States President Donald Trump will reportedly speak at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 20, Blockworks said. His speech will mark the first time a sitting US president has ever spoken at a cryptocurrency conference, Blockworks said in a March 19 announcement.Trump’s presence at the event underscores his embrace of an industry that, under former US president Joe Biden, was the target of more than 100 enforcement actions by federal regulators.“When we started Blockworks we could barely get someone from a bank to attend an event,” Jason Yanowitz, one of Blockworks co-founders, said in a March 19 post on the X platform.“Now we have a sitting US President addressing 2,500 institutional participants. It is incredible how far this industry has come,” Yanowitz said.Blockworks reportedly confirmed Trump will address attendees via a video recording at 10:40 am, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett said in an X post. Source: Jason Yanowitz Related: SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse saysChanging political fortunesDuring his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he promised to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and hinted at plans to form a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. Since starting his presidential term on Jan. 20, Trump has signed executive orders instructing regulatory bodies to accommodate digital assets, forming a White House crypto advisory team, and creating a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. He has also nominated pro-industry leadership to key regulatory posts, including at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Treasury Department. Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, spoke at the Digital Asset Summit earlier this week. On March 19, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, announced the SEC was dropping its years-long enforcement action against the blockchain developer while at the Summit. Since Trump took office, the agency has also dropped charges against other crypto firms — including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap — for allegedly violating securities laws. Blockworks did not specify the topics Trump planned to cover during his speech, which it said would take place Thursday morning. Representatives of the White House and Hines did not immediately reply to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. Crypto industry executives told Cointelegraph in March they are hoping Trump will provide more detailed regulatory clarity on topics such as stablecoin regulation and taxes. Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Crypto regulations must be enacted through an act of Congress to become permanent and meaningful pieces of legislation, according to former Congressman Wiley Nickel.In an exclusive video interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, Nickel urged bipartisan collaboration to push through comprehensive crypto regulations. The former Congressman added:”I think it’s really important for anybody who cares about this issue to step back and realize that if you want lasting change in Washington, you must move legislation through Congress. Otherwise, if you’re talking about executive orders, it will just go back and forth.”“You don’t want to have the mess that we saw just months ago with Gary Gensler’s SEC — you need to get legislation through Congress,” Nickel reiterated.President Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order establishing the Working Group on Digital Assets, which also prohibited the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and the order establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve alongside a separate crypto stockpile, were both examples of executive actions that can be reversed at a later date.Former Congressman Wiley Nickel is pictured sitting second from the left at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit. Source: CointelegraphRelated: Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain AssociationBoth chambers of Congress rush to push through meaningful legislationRep. Tom Emmer, the majority whip of the United States House of Representatives, reintroduced legislation banning a CBDC in the US on March 6.Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis also reintroduced the Bitcoin Act in March, which builds upon an earlier bill of the same title but allows the US to purchase more than 1 million Bitcoin (BTC).Senator Lummis’ Bitcoin Act of 2025. Source: Senator Cynthia LummisRep. Byron Donalds recently announced that he would draft legislation to codify the Bitcoin strategic reserve into law — shielding President Trump’s original executive order from being overturned by a future administration.On March 12, the House of Representatives repealed the IRS broker rule requiring decentralized finance platforms to report information to the Internal Revenue Service in a 292-131 vote.Speaking at this year’s Blockworks Digital Asset Summit, Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna said that Congress should be able to pass comprehensive crypto regulation in 2025, including a stablecoin bill and a market structure bill.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

United States lawmakers are on track to pass legislation setting rules for stablecoins and cryptocurrency market structure by as soon as August, Kristin Smith, CEO of industry advocacy group the Blockchain Association, said during Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.Smith’s timeline echoes a similar forecast by Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, who said on March 18 that he expects to see comprehensive stablecoin legislation in the coming months. “I think we’re close to being able to get those done for August they’re doing a lot of work on that behind the scenes right now,” Smith said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph. “I’m optimistic when you have the chairs of the relevant committees in the House and the Senate and the White House that want to do something and you’ve got bipartisan votes in Congress to get it there,” she added.US President Donald Trump sits beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the March 7 White House Crypto Summit. Source: The Associated PressBipartisan supportAt the Digital Assets Summit on March 18, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said he believes Congress “should be able to get” both the stablecoin and crypto market structure bills passed in 2025. According to Khanna, approximately 70 to 80 Democrats see stablecoin legislation as important for promoting US influence by expanding access to dollars globally.“For the first time those are actually like something we’re able to get done, but to do that you need to have at least 7 Democratic votes in the Senate,” Smith said, adding that “we already have 5 votes at the committee level.”Last week, the Senate Banking Committee approved the GENIUS Act, which is an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins. The proposed bill sets collateralization guidelines for stablecoin issuers and mandates compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.In 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, also known as FIT21, which sets ground rules for crypto market structure. The bill still needs to pass in the Senate to become law. Executives in crypto have said that the industry will benefit more from US regulatory clarity than even the strategic Bitcoin reserve.On March 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2024.“Markets expect a roadmap for innovation and clear guidelines on stablecoins, institutional adoption and taxation,” Max Giammario, CEO of Web3 artificial intelligence startup Kindred, told Cointelegraph in March.Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom