In a striking contradiction that has left policy analysts and industry leaders puzzled, the Trump administration’s recent National Security Strategy for December 2025 completely omits any mention of cryptocurrency, blockchain, or digital assets. This glaring absence stands in stark contrast to the administration’s otherwise assertive and publicly supportive stance toward the crypto sector, a position it cultivated throughout the 2024 campaign and into its current term. Since taking office, the administration has enacted a series of measures widely seen as beneficial to the industry, from regulatory rollbacks to the establishment of dedicated working groups. The release of the nation’s foremost strategic document, however, suggests a profound disconnect between the administration’s economic policy and its long-term vision for national security. While championing digital assets in one arena, the White House has effectively rendered them invisible in another, raising fundamental questions about whether the technology is viewed as a strategic national advantage or merely a financial instrument.
A Clear Pattern of Pro-Crypto Engagement
The administration’s pro-crypto stance has been anything but subtle, beginning with firm commitments made during the 2024 election cycle that energized a significant portion of the electorate. Upon entering office, President Trump moved swiftly to translate these promises into policy, signing a key executive order that rescinded many of the restrictive crypto policies enacted during the Biden era. This was followed by the formation of the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, a body tasked with fostering innovation while ensuring financial stability. In a move celebrated by digital privacy advocates, the administration also formally prohibited the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), citing concerns over government overreach. Furthermore, the White House played an instrumental role in the passage of the GENIUS Act, landmark legislation designed to provide a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins. These actions, taken together, created a political environment far more favorable to the digital asset industry than what had existed previously, signaling a clear intent to embrace the technology.
A Strategic Blind Spot in National Security
Despite this consistent pattern of policy support, the December 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) presents a jarringly different picture. The document, which serves as the definitive blueprint for America’s global priorities and technological leadership, is completely silent on the subject of Bitcoin, blockchain, and other digital assets. Instead of acknowledging the geopolitical significance of decentralized finance or the strategic potential of distributed ledger technology, the NSS focuses exclusively on artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing as the essential pillars for maintaining a competitive edge over global rivals. This omission is far from trivial; the NSS is a meticulously crafted document that signals the administration’s core priorities to every federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Treasury. By excluding cryptocurrency from this strategic vision, the administration implies that it does not consider the technology to be a foundational component of national power, placing it in a category separate from other transformative innovations.
Reconciling Policy With Perception
The divergence between the administration’s active support for the crypto market and its strategic silence in the NSS ultimately pointed to a fundamental schism in perception. The prevailing analysis concluded that while the White House was willing to engage with digital assets as financial instruments and a source of economic growth, it failed to recognize their deeper potential as a foundational technology with significant national security implications. This perspective effectively siloed cryptocurrency within the realm of finance, overlooking its capacity to challenge the global dominance of the U.S. dollar, facilitate secure communications, or offer new paradigms for data integrity. The establishment’s view, as reflected in the NSS, was that of crypto as an asset class to be regulated, not a strategic domain to be cultivated for national advantage. This perception gap created a critical vulnerability, risking that the United States would cede invaluable ground in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, a choice whose consequences would be reckoned with for years to come.
