The Trump administration has released a slate of nominations this week, and key positions, such as to head the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and a major banking regulator in the OCC, have gone to nominees with ties to the cryptocurrency industry.

Why it matters: There's an adage that personnel is policy, and the appointment of crypto veterans — who served during an era of regulatory skepticism — is further signal that the president intends to make digital assets a priority.

The latest: The most eye-catching nomination is Brian Quintenz to chair the CFTC, the country's derivatives regulator. Quintenz leads crypto policy at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and is a former CFTC commissioner.

• Speculation over who would take this role has been hot for weeks — it's the second most important regulatory spot for digital assets, after the head of the SEC.
• (Yes, I got this one wrong.)

What they're saying: "The agency is also well poised to ensure the USA leads the world in blockchain technology and innovation," Quintenz wrote yesterday on X.

Meanwhile, Trump's pick for comptroller of the currency, which heads the OCC, has also gone to a blockchain alum: Last night, the White House sent the Senate the nomination of Jonathan Gould.

• Gould, an OCC veteran and partner at law firm Jones Day in D.C., was chief legal officer at blockchain development firm Bitfury.
• As of now, the OCC has not been front and center with regard to cryptocurrency policy, though that could soon change: The comptroller's been tagged in pending legislation with a key role in regulating companies that want to enter the stablecoin business, creating crypto-tokens backed by dollars and Treasuries.

Friction point: The agency has had the finger pointed at it in the ongoing debanking debate.

• The OCC is one of the prudential regulators that cautioned banks about serving crypto businesses in 2023.

Additionally, an aide for Sen. Bill Hagerty (R.-Tenn.), Luke Pettit, has been nominated for an assistant secretary role at Treasury.

• While Pettit has not worked for a crypto firm, Hagerty has been a key advocate for the digital asset industry in Congress.
• Treasury is likely to be the beating heart of crypto policy once the basic oversight issues get worked out.

What we're watching: The full Senate is expected to vote on Howard Lutnick's nomination to lead the Commerce Department early next week.

The bottom line: These are names that should set the minds of those making digital assets at ease.

"I think we're all struck at the number of [debanking] complaints and the breadth of them. ... At least some of it is real."

Powell made a similar admission during a visit to the Senate Banking Committee this week.

• He said the Fed was not directing those it regulates to debank companies serving the crypto industry.

The other side: Caitlin Long, whose Custodia Bank has been pushing the Fed for years now, disputes that last claim.

• "The Fed directed Custodia's partner banks (yes, plural) to close our accounts," she wrote on X.

In Robinhood's annual report for 2024, the final quarter stands way, way out — it absolutely exploded.

• Between the lines: It's crypto trading that did it.

By the numbers: In Q3 the online brokerage brought in $319 million in total transaction-based revenue derived from options, crypto and stock trading.

• In Q4, it brought in $358 million just from crypto.
• Context: That's a 487% jump in the quarter compared to Q3 from crypto, fueling 111% growth overall. Digital assets vaulted to 53% of Robinhood's transaction-based revenue mix in the final quarter, up from 19% in Q3.
• Crypto trading volumes 7Xed on the platform between October and November.

Flashback: The market got very frothy around the election last year, with bitcoin notching a new high and many folks anticipating another surge once the White House switched hands.

• That second one never came through.

Flashback: We started seeing the crypto boom in Robinhood's earnings midway through last year.

Zoom out: Analysts are projecting a good year for the fintech app and early adopter of crypto.

💭 Our thought bubble: The mistake companies often make in this space is assuming surges like that will continue.

• Enthusiasm for these assets tends to come in bursts.

🚢 Steady as she goes — new Pitchbook data shows crypto funding generally stable for more than a year. (Axios Pro)

🐻‍❄️ President Trump swapped the man behind BTC-e, who pled guilty to money laundering, for a teacher held by Russia. (NY Post)

🧿 Brazil stands by its Worldcoin ban. (Decrypt)

NPR's "Planet Money" podcast got the first interview with Tigran Gambaryan, the Binance executive and former IRS investigator who was held in Nigeria in a dispute between the African nation and the world's largest crypto exchange.

• He was held for eight months, first in a relatively nice guest house, and then, in a notorious prison.
• He goes into detail about the colleague who escaped early in his ordeal, why his health fell apart and the misconceptions sewn about him in local reports.

Listen to it here