The US crypto landscape has entered a new era after President Donald Trump signed the country’s first cryptocurrency laws. Trump, a former vocal skeptic, calls him “the most custody commander in history.” His push to transform America into a global leader in digital finance has already sparked strong debate.
In this background, Syed Musheer Ahmed, founder and managing director of Finstep Asia, shared his views in a recent interview with Coinpedia.
“Wall Street Characters” in ETF and Bitcoin
When asked if there was a risk that the Bitcoin ETF could turn its assets into a Wall Street-controlled instrument, Ahmed described the situation as a double-edged sword. He explained that Bitcoin was originally created to bypass traditional financial institution management in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. However, mainstream products like ETFs have helped to expand Bitcoin reach and are driving large adoption.
“Currently, individual Wall Street/Trad Fee institutions do not hold a significant bitcoin in themselves, but the institutional holding of Bitcoin as a group has increased significantly, allowing us to imagine the stage in which institutions collectively hold Bitcoin over the next five years,” he said.
Whether the impact is decentralized finance or coming from Wall Street, Ahmed says it will not fundamentally change Bitcoin’s status as the highest storage of value, rather than the daily trading currency.
US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Another development is President Trump’s order to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the United States. Ahmed called the move extremely important, even if it relies solely on Bitcoin seized or recovered, rather than a new government purchase.
“Even if the US government decides to purchase new BTC and add it to the Treasury Department and limit it to seized/recovered BTC, it signals that both asset managers and large financial institutions such as pensions are worth keeping BTC in the long term, just like any other government that considers this as an option,” he said.
According to Ahmed, this step alone provides further legitimacy for Bitcoin, encouraging the establishment of stronger crypto markets and regulatory frameworks around the world.
Genius acts and stablecoins
Turning to the newly passed genius law regulating stubcoins, Ahmed described the law as transformative. With US dollar-backed stubcoins accounting for more than 90% of the global market, he said formal laws in the world’s largest economy will push financial institutions into the stubcoin space in a more structured way.
However, Ahmed hopes that the market will eventually consolidate, although there may be a surge in non-bank stubcoin issuers at the beginning. In the medium term, he foresees leading a consortium-led stubcoin or bank-led partnership.