The US will likely introduce new legislation to support the wider use of cryptocurrencies in the world's biggest economy by late August, following meetings of regulators and government officials in Washington and New York last month, the chief executive of Binance said.
The “new optimism” that began with the Trump administration will lead to a series of changes this year in rules that govern the use of digital currencies, Richard Teng, who heads the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, said on Wednesday.
“I believe the US is going to come out with … pro industry and smart regulations that support the industry, but also manages the risk at the same time,” Mr Teng told The National at the global cryptocurrency conference Token2049 in Dubai.
“We applaud those efforts”, he said, adding that there is an evident change in attitude of the US' new leadership in 2025 towards digital currencies.
“We went from operation choke point 2.0 in the last four years to now, under the new Trump administration that's really embracing crypto.”
In April, the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) paused its civil lawsuit against Binance, which it had opened in June 2023 against its founder, Changpeng Zhao, more commonly known as CZ, for operating unregistered exchanges, misrepresenting trade controls and diverting customer funds.
This new direction was demonstrated last year, which Mr Teng described as momentous for cryptocurrencies. The SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) in January of last year, which allowed investors to gain direct exposure to Bitcoin through regulated financial instruments.
The positive shift of US policy toward cryptocurrencies is having a ripple effect globally and with leading institutions that previously shunned it, he said.
“So the Larry Finks of the world ran from a sceptic to a believer, launching iBit in terms of ETFs. Fidelity now launching their own stable coins. Standard Chartered working in blockchain,” he said.
“You see all the top institutions around the world embracing a crypto agenda they want to deploy”, he said adding that the proof is in the numbers.
Binance saw a significant growth in institutions that it boarded last year, which started with 170 million users and ended with 240 million.
chief executive of Binance
“In the course of 15 months we added about 100 million users. So you can see the momentum is very real and very strong.”
Mr Teng said that since he took the Binance helm in late 2023, he has been working closely with governments to establish clear cut and effective cryptocurrency regulations.
Stablecoins
This co-operation includes the UAE, where Abu Dhabi entities IHC, ADQ and First Abu Dhabi Bank on Monday said they plan to launch a nationwide dirham-backed stablecoin that is regulated by the UAE Central Bank.
The move is set to revolutionise the ease of making payments and doing business in the Emirates.
“There are important use cases coming from stablecoin,” said Mr Teng when asked to comment on the UAE's initiative.
As for Binance's participation and connection with the new UAE stablecoin endeavour, he said, “it depends”.
“We can, by virtue of our size, globally, play a very important role in supporting any deployment and fast adoption in that space,” he said.
“We want to be very supportive of all the innovative efforts by government to really embrace blockchain crypto,” Mr Teng said, adding that in general, Binance works closely with governments around the world to help them formulate frameworks and regulations to support innovation, while managing risk.
“I sit on a few global councils on that front, advising governments. CZ has been appointed adviser by several governments,” he added.
Future of cryptocurrencies
Since US President Donald Trump began his second term this year, the cryptocurrency market has seen increased volatility.
Prices for Bitcoin reached an all-time high of about $109,225 on his inauguration day, and then retreated about 10.2 per cent and settled around $94,000 by late April, according to MarketWatch data.
Uncertainty around Mr Trump's trade policies, the launch of a namesake meme coin, and his executive order to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve from seized assets failed to encourage sentiment from investors who were looking for support with more aggressive policies, that all in all, contributed to its price downturn, according to MarketWatch.
Mr Teng said the volatility in the market is short term market reaction and investors need to look at the broader general trend beyond the price fluctuations and uncertainty.
“If you look at the best performing ETF last year, it's related to Bitcoin. So you can see huge adoption in this space,” he said.
“You're going to see a lot of demand coming out from family offices, high level individuals, trading firms, financial institutions trying to get active into the space.”
He said more products are being structured and developed.
“So the future momentum is extremely bright, but as with all asset classes, we are not immune to macroeconomic conditions,” he added.
