"Crypto President" Trump's Report Card: One Year In, How Many Promises Has He Actually Kept?

Original｜Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010)

On January 20, 2026, Donald Trump marked his one-year anniversary as the 47th President of the United States. Over the past year, from the crypto market to the global economy, volatility and price swings often seemed tied to him alone—a single remark could ignite market optimism and send assets soaring; another could become a trigger for a downturn, setting off a chain reaction of "liquidation bombs."

Today, he is called the "Crypto President" by many. So, what key actions has Trump taken over this year that not only defended this title but also solidified it step by step? Looking back, perhaps the following 5 major events can reveal the answer.

Major Event One: Unprecedented, A President Launches a Meme Coin

On January 18, 2025, Beijing time, just before his inauguration, the official Trump meme coin, TRUMP, officially launched. Within a single day, the price of TRUMP rapidly surged from $0.5 to around $28. A large number of cryptocurrency traders made unimaginable fortunes from this, with some profits reaching millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

Trump, at the "eye of the storm," saw his net worth skyrocket as a result—influenced by the TRUMP token launch, his net worth soared over 400% overnight, reaching a staggering $28 billion. In contrast, Forbes' valuation of Trump's net worth in November 2024 was only $5.6 billion. Moreover, within less than three days, the Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) of the TRUMP token once surged to nearly $80 billion, with its price approaching $80.

After the baptism of the "Meme Coin Frenzy" in 2024, the crypto market welcomed the heavyweight political figure of the "U.S. President," once again pushing the "influence ceiling" of cryptocurrency higher. Countless people pinned their hopes of overnight riches on Trump and the TRUMP token.

After all, "a U.S. President launching a meme coin" was a first in the cryptocurrency industry, truly an "unprecedented event."

But the flip side of overnight riches was ruthless harvesting—the fervor of countless people for the "Presidential Meme Coin" could only delay its decline, not propel its continuous rise.

By January 23, most TRUMP token holders were still at break-even or had profits/losses within $1,000. However, by early February, as TRUMP trading activity waned and its price plummeted, the number of wallet addresses holding at a loss reached a staggering 200,000.

According to Chainalysis statistics, approximately 810,000 wallets incurred losses on the TRUMP token, totaling over $2 billion, averaging a loss of $2,500 per person. In contrast, as of May 2025, the issuers of the TRUMP token (Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital) had raked in over $320 million solely from transaction fees; not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of TRUMP tokens they controlled.

The emergence of TRUMP was a costly and heavy "crypto elective course." Its subsequent ripple effects extended far beyond token price performance:

First, after TRUMP, market enthusiasm for celebrity coins briefly reignited. Countless people rushed to buy the Melania Trump-named meme coin MELANIA, the Argentine President Javier Milei-endorsed meme coin LIBRA, and even the President of the Central African Republic wanted a piece of the pie, but these ventures ultimately ended with liquidity harvesting as well.

Second, TRUMP became "ironclad evidence of Trump's corruption" in the eyes of Democrats. This accusation was detailed in a report in the second half of 2025 and marked the beginning of Trump demonstrating a "crypto-friendly regulatory stance." The dispute between the two sides even continues to this day.

Third, the TRUMP token became the "best medium" for Trump to engage with cryptocurrency industry figures. On one hand, Trump used it to signal his "pro-cryptocurrency political stance" to the outside world; on the other hand, TRUMP served as the "monetary vehicle" for deep exchanges between Trump and crypto industry insiders.

In April 2025, registration opened for the "Trump Dinner" targeting the top 220 TRUMP holders. Within a few days, it triggered $2.4 billion in on-chain transfers, with TRUMP's price surging 60% at one point and on-chain activity spiking 200%. Many were willing to spend millions of dollars just to meet Trump. Ultimately, TRUMP meme coin buyers invested a total of approximately $148 million in the holding competition, with an average holding of nearly $4.8 million worth of TRUMP per person. Among them, Justin Sun ranked first with over 1.43 million tokens.

On one side were retail market participants paying for the "Presidential Concept Meme Coin"; on the other was the clinking of glasses and toasts at the "Crypto Dinner." This "crypto version of 'the rich feast while the poor starve'" Trump dinner unveiled the most brutal yet starkly real panorama of the crypto market—some rejoice, some lament, while only the house quietly laughs.

Major Event Two: "A New Broom Sweeps Clean" – Layoffs, Appointments, and Eliminating Opponents

On January 21, 2025, Beijing time, Trump was officially sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, joining the ranks of Washington, Roosevelt, and Obama as another recipient of the honor of being "elected U.S. President twice."

Naturally, this was followed by the political drama of "a new emperor, new ministers." With his experience from his previous presidential term, Trump acted quite shrewdly in personnel appointments:

Step One, "Kill the chicken to scare the monkey." As Trump had previously stated at a Bitcoin conference, on his first day in office, he swiftly fired the former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who had implemented high-pressure crypto regulation, firmly establishing his "pro-cryptocurrency" strong persona.

Step Two, "Install trusted allies." Within just three months, Trump quickly assembled his team, placing individuals who highly aligned with his political views, owned crypto assets, or held crypto-friendly attitudes into key government departments. These included White House AI and Crypto Advisor David Sacks, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, among others.

Step Three, "A protracted war." Jerome Powell, appointed as Fed Chair by Trump, was long seen as the "backbone of Fed policy." However, his hawkish fiscal strategy clashed with Trump's desire to stimulate economic development by cutting interest rates to release liquidity. Thus, disputes between the two persisted throughout 2025—starting in April 2025, Trump frequently blasted Powell for not cutting rates sooner. By December 2025, the battle over the nomination for the new Fed Chair remained a major focal point affecting both the crypto market and the U.S. economy.

Looking back at Trump's management of personnel appointments and government departments, it's hard to see him as a smooth, compromising politician. On the contrary, judging by the outcomes, Trump always found ways to achieve his political goals, sometimes even at the expense of so-called "broader interests." The 43-day U.S. government shutdown last year, the "longest shutdown in U.S. government history," was also one of Trump's own "political masterpieces."

However, from another perspective, all of Trump's actions had a clear goal—to clear out the remnants of the previous Biden administration's Democratic forces and lay the political groundwork for crypto-friendly regulation. With these people in place, a series of "long-standing cases" could be concluded—judicial investigations into crypto platforms like Coinbase, Gemini, Robinhood, Ripple, Crypto.com, Uniswap, Yuga Labs, Kraken, Polymarket, etc., were successively closed. The U.S. Department of Justice's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, known for its high-pressure regulation, was disbanded. The Biden administration's "crypto crackdown actions" were gone for good.

After all, just like cleaning the house before inviting guests, clearing out a batch of old officials and promoting a new group of "your own people" is necessary to make government agencies operate efficiently like a well-oiled machine, fully preparing for future crypto-friendly regulatory legislation and enforcement.

Major Event Three: "Making History with Laws and Decrees" – Establishing a BTC Strategic Reserve and Promoting Three Major Crypto Bills

If the first two major events were the "necessary preparations" for crypto-friendly regulation, then the third major event constitutes the "essential components" of crypto-friendly regulation—that is, implementing crypto-friendly regulation at the legislative and enforcement levels through executive orders and laws. This series of historic breakthroughs is the primary reason Trump is called the "Crypto President."

Issuing a Presidential Executive Order to Establish a U.S. BTC Strategic Reserve Using Seized Assets

In March 2025, Trump issued a presidential executive order to promote the establishment of a U.S. BTC strategic reserve. For the first time, the United States, as the world's leading economic power, began reserving crypto assets like BTC in the name of the national government. This also meant that BTC, in a sense, gained strategic reserve status as important as gold. Although Trump chose a more expedient way to push this forward (Odaily Note: i.e., establishing the BTC strategic reserve using the nearly 200,000 BTC previously seized by the U.S. government, stating it would not use national assets or increase the burden on citizens), its impact was profound.

On one hand, the U.S. BTC strategic reserve set an example for many sovereign nations to incorporate crypto assets like BTC into their economic systems, further expanding the mainstream adoption and普及化 of BTC and other crypto assets. On the other hand, this move also provided a model for more DAT treasury companies and offered national-level endorsement for the fiscal strategies of BTC treasury companies like Strategy and Metaplanet. Subsequently, from July to September 2025, a wave of publicly listed companies模仿建立 BTC, ETH, and SOL treasuries was, to some extent, influenced by this event.

Signing the Stablecoin GENIUS Act, Consolidating Dollar Hegemony

In July 2025, Trump formally signed the stablecoin genius bill, the GENIUS Act. From then on, a golden age for stablecoins began.

Specifically, the bill provided detailed regulatory definitions and implementation rules for stablecoins, which previously had模糊 boundaries and lacked监管, covering aspects such as the definition of payment stablecoins, dual licensing regulation, 100% reserve requirements, mandatory transparency disclosures, anti-money laundering compliance, priority user protection, and明确监管权属.

Simultaneously, this bill was both the first federal-level stablecoin bill in U.S. history and the first cryptocurrency bill signed by a U.S. President, giving it a极为特殊 historical status and industry significance. Of course, the stablecoin system, deeply tied to the U.S. dollar, once again aligned with Trump's "America First" political strategy, further加固了美元在全球经济体系的霸权地位.

Influenced by positive factors like the passage of the GENIUS Act, BTC's price rose突破至 around $110,000, setting another all-time high. Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act also fueled Circle's crypto IPO, helping its stock price surge nearly 10-fold from around $30 at IPO to nearly $300. Thus, this single利好带动了 the rapid development of the U.S. stock stablecoin sector, Hong Kong's stablecoin赛道, and the global stablecoin, PayFi, and crypto payment赛道.

Furthermore, under Trump's strong push, the other two major crypto bills, the CLARITY Act and the Anti-CBDC (Digital Dollar) Act,相继通过众议院投票, marking a solid step forward for cryptocurrency legislation. As promised earlier, Trump once again led by example, clarifying digital asset classification and regulatory归属, promoting DeFi industry development; rejecting the establishment of a central bank digital dollar, protecting U.S. citizens' right to self-custody of digital assets.

To this day, although the CLARITY Act has reached a阶段性僵局 due to Coinbase's opposition and受阻于参议员审批, compared to the previous "historical空白," the numerous breakthroughs at the legal level now represent a historic moment.

Perhaps Trump, having served as President twice, understands that相较于上台执政时的各类执法活动, fixing one's governance agenda and political will into law through legislation is a more lasting and effective political手段.

Major Event Four: Wielding the Tariff Stick, Market Volatility, Crypto Market Becomes an Insider Stage

If the above events showcase Trump's role in benefiting the crypto market, then mentioning the "tariff stick" likely brings a smile to few faces among crypto enthusiasts, myself included.

The reason is simple: whenever Trump initiates a foreign tariff trade war or releases hawkish signals, both the crypto market and traditional financial markets tend to plummet,血流成河. It's no wonder people感叹, when Trump starts a tariff trade war, it's ultimately our crypto users' wallets that pay the price.

The three large-scale tariff trade wars initiated by Trump in April, August, and October 2025 dealt heavy blows to the crypto market—

In April last year, Trump launched global reciprocal tariffs and universal tariffs, increasing tariff levels by over 10%, covering multiple EU countries; he even proposed raising tariffs on China to 125% while suspending tariffs on friendly nations. Affected by this, the cryptocurrency market cap experienced a single-day drop of up to 10%. The U.S. stock market lost $6 trillion in市值 within days, with countless个股血流成河.

In August last year, Trump signed the latest tariff executive order, deciding to impose tariffs ranging from 15% to 41% on imported goods from 67 trading partners, pushing the overall rate to its highest level in over a century. Affected by this, the overall cryptocurrency market suffered, with the three major coins BTC, ETH, and SOL dropping around 5% in a single day, significantly retreating from their历史高点. Subsequently, the tariff order was put on hold for 90 days.

In October last year, Trump initiated another tariff war, cooling Sino-U.S. trade relations again. Affected by this news, BTC一度跌超 13%, ETH一度跌超 17%, and countless altcoins even dropped over 30%. Combined with factors like exchange flash crashes and liquidations, the single-day liquidation规模 in the crypto market reached $20 billion, with estimated真实爆仓资金规模 between $30-40 billion.

Statistics show that in 2025, the U.S. average effective tariff rate rose to 27%, the highest level in nearly 100 years,一度引发政策性报复 from major global economies and供应链中断 in the global economic system.