On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump delivered his annual State of the Union address, touching on inflation, border security, national competitiveness, and congressional ethics reform. However, one topic many in the digital assets industry were listening for never came up. The president did not mention Bitcoin (BTC), stablecoins, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the Genius Act or the CLARITY Act.
While BTC briefly climbed to $66,000 ahead of the President’s address to Congress and has settled just below $70,000, crypto policy was absent from the President’s remarks, even as negotiations around the CLARITY Act intensify behind closed doors in Washington.
Crypto’s evolution towards technical process
For some, Trump’s State of the Union omission of the digital assets industry during was notable. For others, it was largely procedural.
“It would be a stretch to say the absence of crypto in the speech is a signal of any sort,” the CEO of Stable, Brian Mehler, told DeFi Rate.
Ron Hammond, Head of Policy at Wintermute, echoed that view, noting that the lack of mention is “not a troubling sign at this stage,” but highlighted that Congress has “a lot on its plate” ahead of November’s half-term elections, including the CLARITY Act, and much time.
Ashley Ebersole, Chief Legal Officer at tx, suggested the omission reflects the evolution of crypto policy from headline politics to technical process.
“Policy work often moves forward through agencies and congressional negotiations without being highlighted in a national address. With the priorities established, the work to implement digital asset policy becomes more technical and process-driven, which makes it less suited to broad political messaging.”
Moreover, Ebersole added that complex financial legislation, such as the CLARITY Act, often benefits from a lower public profile during negotiations. He also added that some argue that ethics and insider trading reforms must be resolved before the bill is passed.
The Stop Insider Trading Act
One thing Trump did emphasize during his speech was the need to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act “without delay.”
Crypto investor and host of the Bits + Bips podcast, Christopher Perkins, said in a post on X that this could hint toward sequencing: ethics reform first, then market structure.
Other industry experts are divided on whether ethics reform is meaningfully tied to crypto market structure.
Wintermute’s Hammond cautioned against legislative bundling, explaining that attaching other priorities to “an already complicated bill” could further decrease chances of support.
However, the CEO and Founder of DonaFi, Joshua Kim, highlighted that the sequencing argument could “make sense,” especially when allegations and conversations of insider trading are so prevalent in the current market.
A Bloomberg analysis published in October 2025 found that approximately $4.5 billion of the Trump family’s estimated $6.8 billion net worth was tied to crypto-related ventures, including the sale of tokens, a stablecoin project, and a memecoin linked to the President’s name. Critics have argued that the expansion of the family’s digital asset footprint raises conflict-of-interest concerns, particularly as the administration shapes crypto regulation. However, the White House has repeatedly denied any conflicts.
At the same time, the broader crypto market is dealing with major allegations of corruption, including one just dropped by on-chain investigator @ZachXBT alleging insider trading offenses at Axiom Exchange. His investigation details internal employees “allegedly abusing the lack of access controls for internal tools to lookup sensitive user details to insider trade by tracking private wallet activity since early 2025.”
Digital assets tax reform gains momentum
Thursday also saw the release of the Blockchain Association’s Digital Asset Tax Principles, a consensus framework aiming to modernize tax policy for digital assets.
In a statement, CEO Summer Mersinger said the principles are designed to ensure that tax legislation reflects both economic reality and operational practicality.
“Our principles offer a pragmatic foundation for achieving clarity while strengthening American competitiveness.”
The framework calls for a de minimis exemption for small transactions, treating stablecoins as cash for tax purposes, clarifying the treatment of staking and mining rewards, and closing wash sale gaps while preserving everyday digital asset use.
The release coincided with a Capitol Hill fly-in, where members met with offices on the House Ways and Means Committee, a signal that digital asset tax reform is actively advancing through committee channels, even if it was absent from the President’s national address.
Speaking with DeFi Rate, Wintermute’s Hammond highlighted that under Patrick Witt, the White House has been pushing for tax clarity.
“Tax bills are always hard to get through Congress, and the last major legislation saw crypto provisions dropped during negotiations. If Congress is able to get to a tax bill this year, it is very likely that crypto priorities will be included, but prospects for the larger tax bill effort are dim for 2026.”
DonaFi’s Kim added that the current state of the market could see a pattern where compliance, ethics, and tax clarity all come first.
“It’s almost boring, but that’s kind of the point. If the administration can show it tightened guardrails before greenlighting structural reform like CLARITY, critics have less ammo.”
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