A leaked statement by the US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, gives a preview of an “historic executive order” by president Joe Biden that is expected to be published today.
The executive order “calls for a coordinated and comprehensive approach to digital asset policy,” Yellen says before adding:
“This approach will support responsible innovation that could result in substantial benefits for the nation, consumers, and businesses.”
The contents of the executive order remain unknown with it seemingly focused more on setting departmental responsibilities as crypto oversight is upgraded from deep bureaucratic agencies to ministries.
“Under the executive order, Treasury will partner with interagency colleagues to produce a report on the future of money and payment systems,” Yellen says.
This is the first executive order to deal with cryptos and the Biden administration is one of the first in the world to undertake such a high level view of this space.
It’s been months in the making and is thought to deal with overlapping departmental jurisdictions over cryptos that have proven very hard to classify and mold within the current legal framework.
The initial result thus may be more reports rather than actions as this space moves from dealing with commissioners to dealing with Washington DC.
