Digital Finance Game: Unveiling the United States Crypto Assets Strategy

In the accelerated period of the global economy's digital transformation, Digital Money has become a new focus of competition among major powers. Recently, the Trump administration launched a series of groundbreaking cryptocurrency monetary policies aimed at establishing the United States as the “global cryptocurrency center,” thereby continuing and strengthening the dollar's hegemony in the digital financial era.

This strategy involves not only financial regulation and technological innovation but also implies an intention to reshape the international power structure. The following analysis will outline and examine this strategy from aspects such as strategic motives, policy measures, challenges faced, and future prospects.

Digital Financial Game: Revealing the U.S. Crypto Assets Strategy image 0

1. Strategic Motivation: Maintaining Hegemony and Responding to Internal and External Pressures

The Trump administration promotes a Crypto Assets strategy, driven by multiple motivations, including practical considerations in the economic and financial realms, as well as deeper strategic ambitions.

1. Relieve debt pressure and strengthen the appeal of dollar assets.

● The US federal debt has surpassed 36 trillion dollars, with the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 120%. At the same time, major creditor nations continue to reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds, raising doubts about the dollar's credit foundation. By incorporating Bitcoin and other Crypto Assets into its national strategic reserves, the US aims to hedge against the depreciation risk of the dollar with this type of “digital gold,” attract global capital back, and enhance market confidence in dollar assets.

2. Seize the high ground of digital finance and consolidate industrial advantages

● The competition in global Digital Money is becoming increasingly fierce, as major economies such as China and the EU are enhancing financial autonomy through Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). The U.S. has chosen to leverage market-oriented, privatized Crypto Assets as a breakthrough, stimulating blockchain innovation through relaxed regulations, promoting the convergence of capital and technology in the encryption field, and maintaining its dominance in the infrastructure and standards of digital finance.

3. Interest Groups and Electoral Politics

● The Trump family and its supporters have a deep presence in the Crypto Assets sector. Trump himself holds approximately $25 million worth of Crypto Assets and has issued related tokens under his name. In the 2024 election, the crypto industry provided over $200 million in political donations to him. The “loosening” of policies and legislative promotion also, to some extent, responded to the demands of interest groups.

4. Responding to the trend of “de-dollarization” and reshaping the payment network

● Emerging market countries are accelerating the push for “de-dollarization” in cross-border payments, with digital money becoming an important tool. The United States is creating a new payment closed loop using dollar stablecoins (such as USDC): overseas users purchase stablecoins, and the issuer must reserve an equivalent amount of dollars or U.S. Treasuries, thereby strengthening the penetration of the dollar in global transactions. This move effectively extends dollar hegemony into the blockchain network.

2. Core Measures: Legislative, Reserve and Institutional Reforms to Advance in Coordination

To achieve the goal of becoming the “global center for Crypto Assets,” the Trump administration has taken multiple measures, comprehensively planning from institutional design to asset allocation.

1. Key legislative breakthrough, establishing a regulatory framework

a. GENIUS Act: Establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins, requiring stablecoins to be pegged to the dollar at a 1:1 ratio, and positions them as “legal tokens of the dollar,” promoting their widespread use in payments.

b. L-G Act: Aims to clarify the classification of digital assets, define the regulatory boundaries between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and reduce legal uncertainty.

c. Repeal the SAB121 rule: eliminate the requirement for businesses to classify crypto assets as liabilities, lowering the threshold for financial institutions to participate in custody services.

2. Establish a national cryptocurrency strategic reserve

● In March 2025, the United States announced that it would include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and four other Crypto Assets in its national reserves, planning to increase its holdings by 1 million coins within five years, creating a “Digital Fort Knox.” These assets primarily come from judicial forfeiture, and the government has committed to holding them long-term, granting them a strategic reserve status similar to gold.

3. Establish a cross-departmental coordination mechanism to strengthen policy unity.

● The White House has established a “Digital Asset Market Working Group” under the National Economic Council, led by advisors on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency affairs, coordinating multiple departments such as the SEC, CFTC, and the Treasury, to accelerate the development of a regulatory framework and avoid overlapping responsibilities and policy fragmentation.

4. Hold a White House Crypto Assets Summit to build consensus

● In March 2025, Trump convened a summit with leaders of crypto enterprises, government officials, and scholars to establish four major agendas: reserves, legislation, regulatory reforms, and enhancing competitiveness, sending a clear signal of policy support to society and promoting the strategic implementation to accelerate.

3. Challenges Ahead: Internal Disagreements and International Competition Coexist

Despite the rapid advancement of the strategy, its sustainability still faces significant internal and external constraints.

1. International regulatory competition and market fragmentation

● The EU implements strict “Crypto Assets Market Regulation” (MiCA), setting high thresholds for stablecoin issuance and limiting the expansion of USD stablecoins in Europe. Countries like South Korea and Singapore have also introduced their own regulatory systems, and the lack of global standards increases compliance costs for businesses and weakens the global competitiveness of American companies.

2. The US dollar credit system faces a crisis of trust.

● The scale of US debt is rising, and countries are continuously reducing their holdings of US Treasury bonds, undermining the underlying credit of the US dollar. The diversification of settlement currencies for oil transactions and the emergence of new payment systems such as the “multilateral central bank digital currency bridge” are also shaking the monopoly position of the US dollar in international settlements.

3. Lack of clarity in domestic regulatory responsibilities and conflicts between federal and state authorities

● The SEC and CFTC have long had disagreements over the attributes of Crypto Assets, with varying regulatory standards across states (such as Wyoming supporting innovation while New York enforces strict compliance), leading to a complex and conflicting compliance environment for businesses that affects the efficiency of nationwide strategic implementation.

4. Crypto Assets market self-risk

● The severe price fluctuations, energy consumption controversies, and risks associated with illegal trading have led to Crypto Assets still being viewed as high-risk assets. Large-scale inclusion in national reserves could expose the US Treasury to systemic risks in the market.

4. Outlook: Short-term benefits intertwined with long-term risks

The Trump administration's Crypto Assets strategy has produced significant effects in the short term, but there are still many uncertainties in the long run.

1. Short-term promotion of market prosperity and expansion of political influence

● Regulatory easing has prompted companies like Coinbase and Circle to expand their operations in the US, creating a large number of jobs. The crypto industry has formed a significant policy influence through political donations and lobbying, and the issue of Crypto Assets is gradually becoming a consensus area for both parties in the US.

2. Long-term sustainability challenges

● If the credit of the US dollar continues to decline, Bitcoin reserves may instead become a safe-haven asset independent of the dollar, weakening its “dollar extension” function. The fragmentation of global regulation may also force companies to comply with multiple regulations, hampering innovation efficiency.

3. Intensifying the division of global financial governance

● The United States' laissez-faire approach, the European Union's strict regulation, and China's sovereign dominance — the three major regulatory models are increasingly diverging, and conflicts between data sovereignty and cross-border flow rules are rising, which may lead to the formation of regional blocks in the global digital financial system, increasing the difficulty of international coordination.

Five, New Paths and Uncertainties in the Continuation of Hegemony

● The Trump administration is using Crypto Assets as a means to extend the hegemony of the US dollar into the digital financial realm through a dual mechanism of “institutional arrangements + technological embedding.” This strategy can consolidate the United States' leading position in the short term through market vitality and inject new demand into the dollar system.

● However, whether this strategy can be sustained depends on whether the United States can effectively address multiple challenges such as domestic regulatory fragmentation, international rule competition, and the shaking of the dollar's credit foundation.

● The financial hegemony in the digital age no longer relies solely on military or economic scale, but rather on the ability to shape technical standards, governance rules, and alliance systems. The future global financial landscape is quietly being reshaped in this game of “digital dollar” versus “de-dollarization.” **$SLP **$GALA $HIGH