U.S. Doubles Down on AI Strategy While Crypto Remains in Regulatory Limbo – Industry Reacts

Washington's latest tech blueprint pours fuel on the artificial intelligence fire but leaves digital assets cooling on the regulatory sidelines.

The Great American Tech Prioritization

While AI gets a starring role in the national strategy—complete with funding fanfare and regulatory roadmaps—crypto continues its walk-on part in the policy theater. The contrast isn't subtle. One sector gets a detailed playbook; the other gets bureaucratic ambiguity. It's industrial policy with a glaring blind spot for the most disruptive financial innovation in decades.

Silicon Valley's Selective Embrace

VC funds and tech giants cheer the AI clarity, pouring billions into model training and chip fabrication. Meanwhile, blockchain developers navigate a patchwork of state rulings and agency turf wars. The message? Building synthetic minds is a national imperative. Building decentralized ledgers? That's someone else's problem to figure out—preferably after the next election cycle.

The Innovation Drain Risk

Every week without clear rules pushes another crypto-native project toward friendlier shores. Talent follows capital, and capital follows certainty. The U.S. risks perfecting the art of exporting its financial future while importing finished AI products—a trade deficit in innovation that would make any Wall Street veteran smirk through their martini.

A Fork in the Road

The crypto community's response mixes frustration with grim determination. Some lobby harder. Others build faster, treating regulatory uncertainty as just another system constraint to engineer around. The underlying blockchain keeps ticking, consensus mechanisms humming along whether D.C. draws boxes around them or not.

In the end, governments regulate what they understand and fear what they don't. AI's potential is terrifying enough to demand attention. Crypto's threat to legacy power structures? That's the kind of disruption that gets studied to death by committee—a classic move from the bureaucratic playbook where analysis paralysis masquerades as prudent caution.

Why Has AI Taken the Spotlight

Across its 33 pages, the strategy places artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing at the center of America’s next-generation competition.

The administration states that U.S. technology and standards must “drive the world forward,” underscoring a focus on advanced computing rather than decentralized finance. Digital assets, which had gained prominence through previous remarks from officials, receive no explicit mention.

This stands at odds with comments from President Trump in recent months. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview, he warned that China should not become the global leader in virtual assets and insisted that Bitcoin mining should remain within U.S. borders.

A Subtle Reference, but No Clear Policy

While crypto is not named in the strategy, the document does reference strengthening American “leadership in digital finance and innovation.”

Analysts view this as a broad gesture rather than a firm policy direction, but it leaves open the possibility that digital assets may still influence future regulatory or economic strategies.

This ambiguity comes despite a year of significant pro-crypto actions. Measures such as the GENIUS Act for stablecoin oversight, the formation of a crypto enforcement task force, reduced regulatory pressures on exchanges, and opposition to a central bank digital currency have all shaped expectations.

The establishment of a national bitcoin reserve, funded through forfeited digital assets, further signals that crypto remains a strategic consideration even if not formally acknowledged in the latest blueprint.

Currently trading around $91,900, Bitcoin briefly fell below $90,000 following the release of the strategy, a MOVE compounded by broader macroeconomic pressures and anticipation of a Federal Reserve rate decision.

The administration’s call for increased defense spending among NATO allies has also raised questions about inflation and monetary policy, factors that could influence investor appetite for digital assets.

For now, the omission leaves the industry navigating a familiar gap of strong political rhetoric, scattered policy initiatives, but no comprehensive framework. As the U.S. centers its priorities around AI and quantum computing, crypto’s position in national strategy remains undefined. Is this the end of the ‘Crypto Administration’?

Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview