The U.S. crypto landscape has entered a new era after President Donald Trump signed the country’s first cryptocurrency law. Once a vocal skeptic, Trump now calls himself the “most pro-crypto commander-in-chief in history.” His push to reshape America into the global leader of digital finance has already stirred strong debate.
Amid this backdrop, Syed Musheer Ahmed, Founder and Managing Director of Finstep Asia, shared his views in a recent interview with Coinpedia.
ETFs and Bitcoin’s “Wall Street Character”
When asked whether Bitcoin ETFs risk turning the asset into a Wall Street-controlled instrument, Ahmed described the situation as a double-edged sword. He explained that Bitcoin was originally created to bypass the control of traditional financial institutions in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. However, mainstream products like ETFs have helped expand Bitcoin’s reach, fueling adoption on a large scale.
“Currently individual Wall-Street/TradFi institutions, do not hold substantial Bitcoin on their own, but the institutional holding of Bitcoin as a group is growing significantly and we could envisage a stage where institutions collectively hold a majority of Bitcoin in the next 5 years,” he said.
Whether influence comes from decentralized finance or Wall Street, Ahmed says it does not fundamentally alter Bitcoin’s status as a premier store of value rather than a daily transactional currency.
The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Another development has been President Trump’s order to create a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Ahmed called this move highly significant, even if the reserve only relies on seized or recovered Bitcoin rather than fresh government purchases.
“Even if the US government decides not to purchase new BTC to add to the treasury and limit it to seized/recovered BTC, it gives a signal to both large financial institutions, such as asset managers and pensions, to the perceived value in holding BTC long term as also to other governments on considering this as an option,” he said.
According to Ahmed, this step alone provides further legitimacy to Bitcoin, encouraging the establishment of stronger crypto markets and regulatory frameworks worldwide.
The GENIUS Act and Stablecoins
Turning to the newly passed GENIUS Act, which regulates stablecoins, Ahmed described the legislation as transformative. With U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins making up more than 90 percent of the global market, he said that formal legislation in the world’s largest economy would push financial institutions into the stablecoin space in a more structured way.
However, Ahmed expects that while there may be a surge of non-bank stablecoin issuers initially, the market will eventually consolidate. In the medium term, he foresees consortium-led stablecoins or bank-driven partnerships taking the lead.
