This has been a busy week for the Republican Party. After a tumultuous week, the mood has lightened considerably with the reveal of a 12-foot golden statue of President Donald Trump outside the U.S. Capitol. Trump stands upright, smiling and holding forward a bright golden Bitcoin.
The statue appeared on the Capitol lawns on the morning of Wednesday, September 17th, and coincided with the Federal Reserve’s decision on upcoming interest rates.
The afternoon of the same day, the Federal Reserve announced that its key interest rate would be reduced by a quarter of a point, this being the first cut to interest rates since December 2024. The short-term rate will be lowered from 4.3% to about 4.1% based on this decision. Last year alone, the central bank lowered its interest rates three times. This was on account of concerns over slow job growth and growing unemployment.
Although the statue coincides with the Federal Reserve decision, the statue has more to do with starting a dialogue around the use of cryptocurrency in the White House. On the ground, discussions about crypto have already been well established, with many individuals relying on these currencies in their daily lives. Some people use crypto to send money at a low cost, while others choose it as one of their investment options. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have also found their way to the gaming industry. From building games on blockchain to using Bitcoin when playing live casino games, this technology has spread fast to the gaming world. Crypto also has the added benefit of privacy for its users and security in its streamlined connection to already-existing crypto wallets. However, even though many people are already using crypto, the government is only just starting this conversation.
2025 has seen some changes to the way that the Federal Reserve has responded to crypto. In April, the Federal Reserve made decisions regarding crypto, which made it easier to acquire the asset. Before this move, laws around crypto and stablecoin were stringent, and traders required advance notification and approval in order to deal with the currency. In April, however, a decision was made to shift responsibility to banks in dealing with crypto trading. This move required banks to make changes to their internal procedures to allow them to deal with crypto more effectively. This has overall balanced out the crypto market.
The SEC, or Securities and Exchange Commission, has also had a hand at improving conditions for crypto trading. They reversed the controversial Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which made accounting around crypto complicated and unfair. The rescission of this bulletin made crypto trading easier. The SEC also made the decision to pause a number of crypto lawsuits.
The most significant of these lawsuits was against Ripple Labs. The lawsuit, which the SEC initiated in 2020, alleged that by trading XRP, the company was engaging in an unregistered security offering. Other companies like Kraken, Consensys Software, and Cumberland DRW LLC all faced similar accusations, which were also dropped by the SEC. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse made the public statement that the dropping of this lawsuit was an enormous win for the crypto industry.
The US Justice Department also made the decision to shut down its team dedicated to the enforcement of crypto laws. This happened on April 7th, when it was announced that the NCET, or National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, would be disbanded in an effort to lower the regulatory policing of digital assets. The team was originally created in order to fight the criminal syndicates that may have been using cryptocurrencies in their operations, and the team featured individuals specializing in cybercrime, money laundering, and fraud. The move to disband this unit was to dedicate further resources to protecting crypto investors, in order to avoid embezzlement and misappropriation scandals.
The golden statue has clearly come at a very good time for crypto investors. The Federal Reserve, under the guidance of President Donald J. Trump, has made moves towards deregulating the crypto market in order to allow free and fair trade of cryptocurrencies. The Federal Reserve has made a strong attempt to undo the laws that were put in place by the Biden administration.
These efforts did not go unnoticed by crypto traders, who were happy to be able to put up the statue to honor the 45th and 47th president. The crypto investors erected the statue to promote their new crypto project, “Donald J. Trump Golden Statue” (DJTGST). This project is linked to a new memecoin released on pump.fun, which is called the DJTGST. Hichem Zaghdoudi, who spoke on behalf of the group, stated that the statue is designed to start a conversation around “the future of government-issued currency”. The fact that the statue appears to be made of gold while holding a Bitcoin means that these crypto traders could potentially be gunning for Bitcoin to have the same trading value and legitimacy as gold. The statue, however, is not made out of gold and is rather an inflatable installation. The statue was designed to be lightweight and easily moved, meaning that it could serve its time on 3rd Street and be discreetly moved after six hours.
Although the golden statue was seen at the Capitol, it was erected by private investors rather than government officials. Even more interestingly, the statue being installed on the same day as the Federal Reserve announcement does not mean that it is intended to make a statement about interest rates. However, the statue does speak to an improving relationship between US financial authorities and crypto dealers.
