In summary
- Donald Trump selected Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce, rejecting his candidacy for the Treasury Department.
- Lutnick, a Bitcoin advocate, will have less influence on crypto policy from Commerce than from the Treasury.
- The new Treasury candidates, Kevin Warsh and Marc Rowan, have less favorable positions towards cryptocurrencies.
Donald Trump has selected Wall Street billionaire and Bitcoin advocate Howard Lutnick to serve as his Secretary of Commerce, according to the Wall Street Journal. In doing so, Trump has rejected the investor’s alleged push to run the Treasury Department, a position with much more influence over the US economy.
Leading the Commerce Department is certainly no small prize for Lutnick, who is currently co-chairing Trump’s transition team. As Commerce chief, if confirmed by the US Senate, Lutnick would be tasked with a variety of tasks, including overseeing international trade and tariffs, conducting the census and leading the US Patent and Trademark Office. .
And yet, the influence and prestige of the position of Secretary of Commerce pales in comparison to that of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, a position that Lutnick strongly desired and for which he lobbied aggressively in recent days, according to a report in The New York Times.
Lutnick reportedly wanted to run the U.S. economy so badly that his enthusiasm irritated Trump, prompting the president-elect to look for other candidates for the Treasury job.
As Secretary of Commerce, Lutnick will now have considerably less influence over crypto policy than he would have had if he had been selected to lead the Treasury.
Lutnick is a leading Bitcoin believer whose firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, custody billions of dollars in assets for stablecoin giant Tether. As Treasury Secretary, he would have been able to reverse Biden-era policies that, from stablecoins to crypto privacy tools, have put the US government in opposition to some of the most popular offerings in the Cryptocurrency world. .
He would also have been in a position to advance Trump’s stated plan to establish a federal strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Now, the odds of Trump choosing a pro-crypto Treasury chief appear uncertain. Scott Bessent, who was a leading candidate for the position last week before Lutnick began campaigning against him, has indicated his support for both cryptocurrencies and Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plans.
But Lutnick’s jockeying for the Treasury job may have discouraged Trump from Bessent as well. The president-elect is now said to be set to interview two new candidates for the job this week: former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Wall Street investor Marc Rowan. Neither of them have strong ties to cryptocurrencies.
Warsh has long advocated the creation of a US central bank digital currency (CBDC), a development that many in the cryptocurrency world have tried to avoid for years due to privacy concerns. Meanwhile, Rowan expressed skepticism, even in February, about the need for digital assets to be part of the US economy.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional details.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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