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- > Trumping regulations: What to expect for crypto in 2025
- > SEC issued please explain as Coinbase turns the tables
- > Oklahoma OKs Bitcoin as Bhutanese city introduces crypto Reserve
- > Illuvium levels up GameFi with Virtuals Protocol integration
Trumping regulations: What to expect for crypto in 2025
Donald Trump’s inauguration is just around the corner, and the crypto community can hardly wait.
About a year ago, writing that sentence would have been an outlandish thing to do. Let’s not forget Trump’s history of claiming crypto’s value is “based on thin air” and that Bitcoin “seems like a scam.”
However, things change quickly in the political world, and even more quickly in the crypto sphere, and now Trump is one of the blockchain’s biggest allies.
Among promises of a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the ousting of current Securities and Exchange Chair Gary Gensler – the biggest change will come from something much less sexy:
Regulatory Clarity.
For years, the crypto industry has been marred by opaque financial frameworks, as regulators attempt to pigeon-hole digital currencies into TradFi guidelines.
This led to the 2020s, Matrix-esque equivalent of The War on Drugs – The War on Crypto.
But under the Trump administration, the landscape is likely to change.
Clearer regulations may boost innovation among Web3 players, encourage hesitant businesses, and enhance the sector’s legitimacy. In simple terms – the community is crossing its fingers that Trump’s policies will lead to widespread adoption.
Though the fundamentals of crypto look strong moving into 2025, the macroeconomy is shaping up to be…a little tricky.
The ripple effect of COVID-19 is still plaguing the international economy, with inflation – while not running rampant – is still on the higher end of the Reserve Bank’s estimates.
This means that interest rates are unlikely to come down as much as anticipated in several major nations, including the US and Australia.
In the short term, this could spell bad news for the crypto industry, as investors tend to avoid more volatile assets in a higher-rate environment.
Additionally, despite Trump’s crypto positivity, there is some trepidation among the market on how his trade policies could impact the US economy going forward.
Things are changing rapidly, and therefore there’s a lot of uncertainty as we come into 2025.
But one thing’s for sure, this year is shaping up to be the biggest in crypto’s short, storied history.
SEC issued please explain as Coinbase turns the tables
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Coinbase have been going at it for nearly two years now.
Through that time, the entire crypto landscape has dramatically shifted. Spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved, Donald Trump became pro-blockchain and was then elected US president, and financial giants like BlackRock flocked to the industry.
Yet despite the seismic shift, one thing has remained consistent – the Gary Gensler-led SEC’s refusal to explain how and why cryptocurrencies are (or are not) deemed securities.
However, the legal toing and froing may finally be nearing a resolution, as the US Court of Appeals sided with Coinbase and ordered the SEC to “explain its decision not to” clarify crypto regulations.
One of three presiding judges, Stephanos Bibas, even gave the regulatory agency a whack on the way out.
“[The SEC] should not give yet another poor explanation in an already-long line of them.”
The crux of the issue, which has caused the current SEC administration’s “regulation by enforcement” policy, is determining whether crypto assets are securities or commodities.
While industry advocates argue that cryptocurrency, as a new and emerging technology, requires its own set of regulations, Gensler and co have argued that pre-existing frameworks are enough.
However, according to the court, it appears that this isn’t the case.
“Because we believe the SEC’s order was conclusory and insufficiently reasoned, and thus arbitrary and capricious, we grant Coinbase’s petition in part and remand to the SEC for a more complete explanation [on why they refuse to share their crypto policy].”
Judge Bibas added: “The agency could just state its position on crypto assets unequivocally”.
The current SEC will likely undergo a serious shake-up on Jan 20th – starting with the probable resignation of current Chair Gary Gensler.
As crypto regulations enter their next era, the court ruling adds more fuel to the optimism fire currently warming the crypto community.
Oklahoma OKs Bitcoin as Bhutanese city introduces crypto Reserve
If 2024 was the “year of the ETF”, 2025 is shaping up to be the “year of the Strategic Reserve”.
Though institutional investors practically begged fund managers to take their money, governments remained fairly cautious of the crypto industry.
That is, until Donald Trump suddenly became one of the community’s biggest allies, promising the world a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
While we’re still a few weeks away from discovering whether the Trump administration can live up to its promises, several major governments have already gotten on the front foot.
Perhaps the biggest endorsement came from Oklahoma, who announced a new bill that would see Bitcoin become legal tender within the state. Essentially, workers could choose to get paid in BTC (or fiat), while merchants could also begin accepting Bitcoins.
The filing, known as the Bitcoin Freedom Act, is a direct response to stagflation fears.
“In a time when inflation is eroding the power of hard-working Oklahomans, Bitcoin provides a unique opportunity to protect earnings and investments.”
The Bitcoin Freedom Act will discover its fate on the 3rd of February.
However, Oklahoma is far from the only government to embrace cryptocurrency.
Over in the South Asian nation Bhutan, the local Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) officially adopted a cryptocurrency Strategic Reserve. The GMC will build a portoflio of Bitcoin, ETH, and BNB, which will be paired with holdings accrued from state-owned Bitcoin mining.
Meanwhile, Brazil, Russia, Florida, Japan, Switzerland, China and several US states are among the many other governments considering a Bitcoin Reserve.
Illuvium levels up GameFi with Virtuals Protocol integration
The blockchain gaming industry is one of the biggest “what-ifs” in the crypto world.
Will GameFi fulfill its potential and usher in a new era of economic possibilities for top-tier gaming titles? Or will it remain a niche mostly used as a mechanism for earning passive income?
2025 is set to go some way to answering these questions – and Illuvium wants to show the world just how game-changing (sorry) GameFi can be.
If you’ve looked at the crypto markets over the past few months, you’ve probably seen one project in particular atop the daily gainers – Virtuals Protocol.
The AI agent network exploded 5,000% in the last quarter, as the intersection between artificial intelligence and crypto started to heat up.
AI agents can autonomously perform tasks based on their environments – making them an interesting match with gaming.
The biggest, most obvious pairing is changing the way playable characters interact with the world around them.
This is something Illuvium identified and is planning to implement into its three-pronged gaming ecosystem.
In particular, Illuvium will add Virtuals Protocol AI agents to its Overworld title, an open-world collectathon to enhance “NPC” interactivity.
It will add a level of immersion to the game’s universe, making it feel more life-like and organic than pre-coded dialogue with non-playable characters.
But the real potential comes in adding depth to the game and its story, with the agents potentially able to create modular, individual questlines that constantly evolve depending on the player’s decisions and dialogue.
Exactly what the Virtuals and Illuvium team-up will look like is still a mystery.
And while there’s definitely scope for disappointment, the use of AI agents in GameFi could be the key that unlock’s the sector’s tightly-guarded potential.
Ben Knight
