Crypto continues to accelerate in the U.S.
With one of the largest crypto conferences wrapping up this week the flurry of headlines and trends that have dominated the cryptoasset landscape in 2025 continues to accelerate. Even as President Trump continues to come under fire for potential conflicts of interest between crypto interests using the Trump likeness and name, and as legislative efforts continue to work through the policy gristmill, market sentiment continues to tick ever higher. For example, May 2025 has seen bitcoin achieve fresh all-time-highs even in the face of economic data suggesting the U.S. economy is slowing, continued volatility around tariff and trade headlines, and a political environment that continues to be bifurcated along party lines. In addition the GENIUS Act continues to move forward in the legislative process as simultaneously multiple states move forward with efforts to establish and fund strategic digital asset stockpiles.
Given this volatile, but optimistic backdrop, investors and policy advocates would be forgiven for focusing primarily on price charts and legislative trackers. That said, there are several headlines that either 1) might have flown under the radar, and/or 2) have implications beyond what the fleeting headline coverage may have examined. Let’s have a look at a few of them below.
Stablecoins Are U.S. Policy
In a widely viewed speech at bitcoin 2025, Vice President JD Vance reaffirmed the administrations commitment to stablecoins, and specifically the dollar-backed stablecoins that will be supported via the passage of the GENIUS Act. In addition to specific comments by Vice President Vance at the conference itself, crypto advisor David Sacks reiterated the potential for dollar-backed stablecoins to increase demand for U.S. Treasuries and other debt instruments to the tune of trillions of dollars in demand.
Even though the GENIUS Act remains proposed legislation versus reality the language and specificity for how dollar-backed stablecoin issuers would need to ring fence, custody, and invest dollar deposits would be a significant improvement compared to the lack of such regulation and standards that currently exist. In short, and building on previous comments and discussions the position of the U.S. has pivoted from viewing stablecoins as competition for the dollar to a tool that increase the strength of dollar diplomacy.
Blockchain Records Are Accelerating In The Garden State
In a headline that might have gone overlooked, the digitization of records across industry lines via blockchain platforms also continues to accelerate. In New Jersey, Bergen County has recently announced a partnership with software firm Balcony to tokenize all property deeds on the Avalanche network under a 5-year agreement. The goal of this initiative is to simplify and secure record management for the nearly 1 million residents that reside in the county lying across from New York City. The total value to be tokenized via this agreement is approximately $240 billion, which would represent the largest such project to date in the United States, as well as serving as example of the increasing trend toward tokenizing real-world assets (RWA).
Projected benefits of this project, based on previous implementations by Balcony in New Jersey, include a reduction in processing time by 90%, reducing fraud and record irregularities, and potentially increasing revenue collection. While investors and financial media – rightly so – devote substantial attention to asset prices and regulatory progress, the integration of blockchain across virtually every aspect of the economy continues virtually unimpeded.
Passive Crypto Will Accelerate Into 2026
An additional policy shift that occurred at the same time that Bitcoin 2025 was garnering headline coverage is that the administration has rolled back previous guidance that urged employers to exercise additional caution prior to including bitcoin and other cryptoassets in other 401(k) plans. Politics aside, the position taken is that the specific language that was included in the previous guidance is not found in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Instead the Department of Labor had assumed a neutral position with regards to specific assets and/or investment strategies. This is not to say that 401(k) plans and advisors will allocate large amounts of capital to cryptoassets instantaneously, since the fiduciary duties linked to 401(k) plans still exists.
Regardless of how quickly and comprehensively crypto becomes added to more passive investment vehicles such as 401(k) plans the signal and stance of the regulatory environment has decidedly shifted toward at least a neutral stance on the sector. Combined with the institutional fund flows that followed the approval of the bitcoin and ether spot ETFs the outlook for institutional capital continuing to enter the crypto space is optimistic.
Bitcoin 2025 made headlines and garnered significant media attention, as it should, but under those headlines there are substantial changes and advancements for crypto adoption occurring on an almost daily basis. Investors and policy advocates would be well advised to monitor these developments as well as the longer term implications for price and adoption.
