Trump Orders Fed Crypto Access Review, EU Reopens MiCA, Sanders Demands AI Rules

Crypto News

The Trump administration this week directed federal financial regulators to overhaul rules governing how digital asset firms interact with traditional banking infrastructure. The executive order, signed Tuesday, gives the Federal Reserve, SEC, CFTC, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ninety days to identify regulations that impede fintech partnerships with regulated institutions. A subsequent 180-day window will require those agencies to act on innovation-friendly revisions. The directive explicitly targets what the White House described as overly burdensome and fragmented supervisory practices that favor incumbent firms, signaling a structural shift in how the United States approaches integrating blockchain services into mainstream payments.

Within the same order, the Federal Reserve faces a especially pointed assignment: assess within 120 days whether it possesses the legal authority to grant non-bank financial companies, including digital asset firms, direct access to its payment rails. If existing law permits such access, the Fed must publish transparent application procedures and decide on complete submissions within ninety days. The move could unlock master accounts that have long been gated to traditional banks, removing a chokepoint for crypto-native businesses including DeFi custodians seeking settlement parity. Industry policy advocates framed the directive as a concrete step toward positioning the country at the forefront of digital asset adoption.

Across the Atlantic, Brussels opened a formal consultation on the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, asking whether the bloc's flagship digital asset rulebook still fits a market that has evolved rapidly since enactment. The European Commission notice published Wednesday sets August 31 as the feedback deadline and runs two parallel tracks: a public questionnaire and a more technical channel aimed at firms, regulators, and trade bodies. The review spans every major MiCA component — issuer rules, asset-referenced tokens, e-money tokens, and service providers across major altcoin categories. Officials cited shifting market structure and intensifying competition from Washington and Asia as the catalysts for the reassessment.

The consultation arrives weeks before a July deadline that requires firms operating under MiCA transitional regimes to secure full authorization. Zerohash this week became the first company to hold both a full CASP license and an Electronic Money Institution license from Dutch regulators, while Poland passed its domestic implementation bill last week. Coinbase's European policy lead said the review represents an opportunity to sharpen, not restart, a framework that has set an early global standard for clear and harmonized rules. The European Central Bank in April also backed a Commission proposal to centralize supervision of major Bitcoin-focused and cross-border crypto firms under Paris-based ESMA.

On Capitol Hill, Senator Bernie Sanders renewed his call for Congress to regulate artificial intelligence, citing fresh polling that he says shows overwhelming public support for binding safety rules. The independent from Vermont pointed to surveys finding 70 percent of Americans believe AI is moving too quickly and 97 percent want the technology subject to safety regulation. Sanders, who co-introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this year, framed the legislative inertia as a contest between voters and Big Tech lobbying power. He urged lawmakers to listen to constituents rather than billionaires pushing accelerated deployment timelines.

Public hostility toward unregulated AI deployment appears to be intensifying in parallel with the regulatory debate. A recent national survey found 44 percent of respondents believe the technology is developing too rapidly, while nearly two-thirds support either strict regulation or broader guardrails for the industry. The shift has spilled into public events: commencement speakers including Eric Schmidt, Big Machine Records chief Scott Borchetta, and Tavistock Development executive Gloria Caulfield were reportedly booed after referencing AI during graduation addresses. Sanders added that 77 percent of survey respondents expect entire industries to be eliminated, underscoring why advocates view regulation as politically urgent.

A single thread runs through this week's developments: governments on both sides of the Atlantic are racing to write the rulebooks for technologies that have outpaced existing oversight. Washington is opening payment infrastructure to digital asset firms while reviewing crypto policy from the top down; Brussels is reassessing MiCA before its transitional regimes expire; and Congress is being pressured to address AI before public backlash forces less measured intervention. The dominant cycle narrative is regulatory tightening paired with selective opening — gatekeepers lose leverage as emerging sectors gain access, a dynamic that often precedes the next sustained bull market in compliant digital assets.