President-elect could create first cryptocurrency role at White House

President-elect is a convert to digital money and once reportedly used Bitcoin to pay for burgers

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Donald Trump’s team is considering creating a new White House role focused on cryptocurrency policy, according to reports.
Crypto industry representatives with a direct line to Mr Trump are reportedly lobbying for the role, which could take the form of acting as a liaison between Congress, the White House and other agencies.
The president-elect’s transition team is said to be vetting candidates for the role, according to Bloomberg News.
While he criticised cryptocurrency in his first administration, in the run-up to the election Mr Trump, 78, became a supporter of Bitcoin and the industry.
On the campaign trail, Mr Trump vowed to establish a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile”, attacked the Biden administration’s crackdown on crypto, and launched his own digital coin.
He promised to fire Gary Gensler, the crypto-sceptic chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, “on day one” and reportedly paid with Bitcoin for burgers he bought for his supporters at a New York bar.
Mr Trump also addressed a Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July, telling the audience: “If we don’t embrace crypto and Bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will, they’ll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate.”
Crypto advocates are understood to have visited Mar-a-Lago in recent days to hold meetings with Mr Trump’s transition team.
It comes as Elon Musk outlined plans for his new role as the “efficiency” czar at the helm of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, whose initials, DOGE, bear the name of his favourite cryptocurrency.
Mr Musk, who has not left Mr Trump’s side since his election win, penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal with his department co-chairman Vivek Ramaswamy.
The pair said bureaucracy represented an “existential threat” to US democracy and they would work to slash federal regulations and make major administrative cuts and cost savings.
“We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees,” Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy wrote in their remarks.
They added: “When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorised by Congress.”
The Telegraph has contacted a representative of Mr Trump for comment.
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