Incoming US president Donald Trump had promised action on bitcoin, and reports have now emerged that he might pass a number of crypto-related executive orders on his first day in office, some of which could result in a bitcoin price boom.

According to a Forbes article: “Trump’s day-one executive orders may address issues including de-banking and the repeal of a controversial crypto accounting policy requiring banks holding bitcoin and crypto to count them as liabilities on the bank’s own balance sheet.”

The Biden administration had put pressure on financial regulators to cut-off crypto firms from the financial services, a policy that is also set to be reversed under the incoming Trump administration.

Another policy that could be scrapped is the requirement for companies to report crypto as a liability. This policy was a result of a March 2022 SEC) staff accounting bulletin, SAB121.

The expectation is that the repeal of this policy would trigger a huge and unprecedented boom in bitcoin prices, with some estimates taking it to as high as $5m per coin.

Too strong to crash?

There were some fears in the global financial markets around the stability of digital asset prices as bitcoin fell to as low as $90,000 over the past few days. According to reports, the valuation for bitcoin was “hurt by speculation that the Federal Reserve’s window for further interest-rate cuts is closing.”

While some sceptics questioned the global digital asset market’s reliability, and even predicted a crash, others were optimistic that things would change for the better with a change of administration at the White House.

Katie Stockton, technical analyst at Fairlead Strategies LLC, believes that, for now, the largest digital asset remains in a “corrective phase,” as reported by Yahoo Finance. On the other hand, Bloomberg has reported that investors have pulled around $1.6 billion net from US spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds over the past few trading days.

Middle East’s crypto boom

As the crypto industry continues to focus on developments in the US, another region of the world is quietly creating its own crypto success story and setting new records.

According to a CNN report: “The Middle East is rapidly establishing itself as a key player in the global cryptocurrency landscape, with both local traders and international businesses flocking to the region.” The report is partly based on figures by Bitget Research from last year, which said there was “an average of 500,000 daily crypto traders locally in 2024, marking a 166% increase year-over-year.”

According to Bitget’s research: “UAE leads the region in crypto adoption” and regional countries “predominantly rely on global centralised exchanges, with minimal demand for local exchange platforms.”

A separate report by Chainanalysis last year suggests that “the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region ranks as the seventh-largest crypto market globally in 2024.”

The report adds that there was “an estimated $338.7 billion in on-chain value received between July 2023 and June 2024, accounting for 7.5% of the world’s total transaction volume.”

Crypto beats mobiles and internet

Many of us try to remember how old we were when we first got our own mobile phone, or when we first accessed the internet and did something online. Crypto has the same kind of significance for today’s younger generation around the world, the only difference being the fact that it is being adopted at a much greater pace.

A new study about crypto adoption by BlackRock has revealed that it only took the digital asset 12 years to reach 300 million users, or adopters in this case. By comparison, it took mobile phones 15 years to reach 300 million users around the world. The internet took a good couple of decades to reach that milestone.

The study has also revealed that “younger generations are more likely to be considered ‘digital natives,’ resulting in greater predisposition towards bitcoin adoption than GenX and Baby Boomers.”

Factors such as “inflation fears, global political division and banking and fiscal concerns” are said to be some of the factors increasing bitcoin’s resonance as a decentralized asset, the study says.

BoE update on digital pound

The Bank of England (BoE) has taken another major step towards the potential introduction of a digital currency, by kickstarting an experimental phase towards the introduction of a digital pound lab.

The BoE has said in a press release: “A digital pound, issued by the Bank of England, would be seamlessly exchangeable with cash and bank deposits, ensuring the continuity of a trusted, uniform and accessible means of payment.

“As a publicly provided platform, it could foster innovation by enabling a varied range of private sector firms to develop innovative and user-friendly services.”

The Bank has made it clear that this is only an experimental design phase, aimed at exploring different technological and other aspects of a digital currency. It says there is no decision yet on whether it will actually proceed with introducing a digital pound, and explains that decision will be made after the current two-year experimental phase is completed.

The BoE first put forward the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by publishing a consultation paper in early 2023. A year later, the Bank published responses to that paper and announced it will be entering an experimental phase next.