Policy-Driven Cycle: The U.S. is reshaping the crypto landscape through regulatory policies
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Policy-Driven Cycle: The U.S. is reshaping the crypto landscape through regulatory policies
Which赛道 will benefit from this wave of policy红利?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Jiayi
I firmly believe this crypto cycle is being driven by U.S. government policy.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order on 401(k) retirement investment, allowing part of retirement funds to be allocated into private equity, real estate, and even digital assets. Looking back a few weeks earlier: the GENIUS Act was officially passed, establishing a regulatory pathway for stablecoins; this month, the SEC also shifted its stance, loudly declaring its intention to build a "Crypto Everything" framework. From stablecoins to DeFi, from on-chain identity to tokenized assets, nearly every segment is being systematically reintegrated into the U.S. regulatory system.
This isn't minor tweaking—it's a structural redirection of capital. The U.S. is doing one thing: integrating Crypto into the dollar system as the next-phase engine for financial growth.
Today, let’s explore what the U.S. government is really aiming for—and which sectors crypto enthusiasts should focus on to maximize their gains.
What exactly is the U.S. government orchestrating?
This wave of policy isn't about “opening trading” or “allowing speculation,” but rather a system-level restructuring: using U.S.-led regulatory and financial frameworks to systematically integrate crypto assets into U.S.-dominated financial structures. This may sound abstract, but recent key moves have made the trajectory very clear.
A pivotal step was the passage of the GENIUS Act—the first federal law in U.S. history specifically for “payment stablecoins.” The U.S. government has personally defined the model of a “compliant dollar stablecoin” and opened the door to the financial system. This means stablecoins are no longer gray-market patches on the chain, but financial instruments that can be incorporated into monetary policy frameworks. With Treasuries backing them, users employ them for cross-border payments, banks use them for liquidity management, and even corporations can adopt them for accounting. This is institutional authorization in the truest sense.
At the same time, the SEC has quietly completed a strategic shift. They’ve launched “Project Crypto,” not to dismantle the industry, but to bring it under existing legal frameworks. They now acknowledge that not all tokens are securities, and are preparing to issue unified standards. They’re also pushing forward a major initiative: bringing on-chain exchanges, stablecoins, DeFi, and RWA issuers into a formal registration framework. At the core of this “Crypto Everything” plan are three goals: 1. Uniform regulatory oversight, 2. Capturing compliant capital, 3. Assigning the on-chain world a “controllable role.” In the future, you might see: licensed DeFi protocols, publicly funded RWA issuance platforms, and exchange wallets integrated with TradFi systems.
So what the U.S. government truly wants isn’t just price surges, but to transform this on-chain system into a productivity tool they can control. Enabling dollars to circulate on-chain, securities to be issued on-chain, and American finance to reshape a new global order. That’s why I keep saying: the main theme of this cycle isn’t crypto self-evolution, but a federally designed “digital asset assimilation program.”
Policy implementation triggers rapid market response
From the passage of the GENIUS Act to the recent signing of the 401(k) executive order, BTC briefly surged to $123,000, while ETH gained 54% over the month, nearing $4,000 at its peak.
Zooming out to the macro level: in July alone, U.S. spot crypto ETFs attracted $12.8 billion, setting a new historical record. Bitcoin-related products absorbed nearly half—around $6 billion—while ETH ETFs were equally strong, pulling in $5.4 billion in inflows. BlackRock’s Bitcoin trust IBIT grew its AUM to $86 billion, surpassing some S&P 500 component ETFs.
Traditional financial institutions are also fiercely “onboarding onto the chain.” BUIDL, BlackRock’s on-chain Treasury fund, not only grew its AUM to $2.9 billion, but is now accepted as collateral by mainstream exchanges like Crypto.com and Deribit—indicating it has become liquidity within the crypto financial system. JPMorgan also upgraded its payment chain Onyx into a new on-chain settlement system called Kinexys, partnering with clearing giant Marex to conduct the first “7×24 real-time on-chain clearing.” In plain terms, this fully integrates traditional financial processes—previously slow and weekend-bound—into the blockchain.
Institutions aren’t just “exploring”—they’re treating the on-chain ecosystem as serious business. You can keep listening to KOLs, or you can look at where the money is flowing. This rally isn’t narrative-driven; it’s capital responding to policy direction. Money is already betting on assets that can absorb policy momentum.
Which sectors will capture policy benefits first?
So which sectors will benefit most from this policy wave? Let’s break it down.
The opportunity won’t be evenly distributed—it will concentrate in a few key directions. Here’s my personal take: stablecoins, on-chain financial infrastructure, and ZK-based projects under compliance demand will lead the charge, while other sectors follow at different paces.
Direct beneficiaries of the policy wave: Stablecoins
Stablecoins are the most direct winners of this U.S. regulatory windfall. The GENIUS Act is essentially a passport for dollar stablecoins: legally recognized issuance, officially legitimized status—finally able to enter the mainstream of the U.S. financial system. We’ve already seen Trump’s two sons move early, launching USD1 via WLFI to secure a first-mover advantage as the compliance era begins.
On the day of the policy launch, JPMorgan announced a pilot project on Coinbase’s Base chain to issue JPMD deposit tokens (essentially fractional-reserve bank deposit stablecoins). Coinbase’s own USDC also saw rapid growth under the compliance tailwind, adding $800 million in circulation last week, and recently launched a crypto credit card backed by American Express, integrating USDC payments directly into Shopify and Stripe checkout systems.
Scale explosion is just the appetizer. The real change is the expansion of use cases.
Payment networks like Visa and Mastercard have already integrated stablecoins into their global systems, using them for high-frequency payments to bypass the slow, expensive layers of traditional card networks. Cross-border remittances, e-commerce, and in-game transactions—all see immediate efficiency gains once compliant stablecoins are adopted. Meanwhile, the entry of “mainstream players” raises the bar sharply. Regulations require issuers to be subsidiaries of regulated financial institutions or licensed trust companies, and to pass safety assessments by financial regulators.
This effectively shuts out small innovators. The stablecoin market will rapidly consolidate into an oligopoly, with clearer competition among three camps: Circle, Coinbase, and traditional banking entities. Combined with the ban on paying interest to holders, stablecoins will revert to their core functions of payment and value storage, abandoning the illusion of ultra-high yields seen in algorithmic stablecoins.
So how can ordinary users participate in this boom?
There are accessible paths. For example, multiple compliant platforms now offer reasonable yields on USDC—safer routes with strong liquidity, ideal for conservative capital: Coinbase offers around 4.1% APY for holding USDC. Binance has recently launched a flexible USDC deposit product. During this promotion, each account can earn up to 12% APR on up to 100,000 USDC, with instant deposits and withdrawals.
From an investment standpoint, these returns are not insignificant—offering stability, security, and liquidity, far more practical than leaving funds idle on exchanges. Especially for cross-border users, holding stablecoins earns yield while avoiding FX volatility and traditional channel inefficiencies.
My conclusion: this policy wave clears the runway for compliant, stable stablecoins. In the short term, dollar stablecoins and their payment applications will attract capital inflows; long-term, they’ll serve as ballast for on-chain finance and become the core bridge for fiat digitization.
Stablecoins as gateway: accelerated development of on-chain economic infrastructure
The clarification of U.S. regulation is actually paving the way for a domestically rooted financial economy. By “localization,” I mean compliant public chains and protocols will host more U.S. institutional operations, and traditional finance will actively integrate into these on-chain foundations, treating them as new infrastructure—this is the second sector I’m watching closely.
The clearest example is Base, which leverages Coinbase’s compliance edge and seamless exchange integration to successfully onboard increasing numbers of U.S. institutions and enterprises, connecting payment, application, and asset circulation across multiple verticals. Given this trend, I’m bullish on Base’s ecosystem expansion. Beyond launching tokenized securities itself, it’s filling the pipeline with partner applications—like building on-chain stablecoin payments with Stripe, making Base a hub for payment innovation; it also provides underlying settlement infrastructure for PayPal, JPMorgan, and others.
In the future, U.S. payment firms, banks, and brokers will clearly prefer such a domestic, communicable network—one where issues can be resolved immediately—over anonymous foreign chains. Localization is essentially a compliance moat.
Base doesn’t issue a token; its traffic, value, and potential are realized through B3—the sole conduit built on Base, founded by ex-Coinbase team members. B3 inherits Base’s compliance alignment and access to user economics, meaning it holds unmatched first-mover advantages in dollar stablecoin payments, institutional settlements, and North American market narratives. Once B3 closes the loop on use-case integration and personalization, it will become highly attractive to quality assets seeking efficient, long-term on-chain operations. When Base experiences a massive app surge, B3 will be the go-to platform for deployment and scale—a true super-app layer and on-chain economic gateway.
I know the B3 team fairly well—they operate prudently, focusing on product refinement while steadily expanding externally. I’ll leave this as a teaser for now. One thing’s certain: after upcoming major partnership announcements, B3’s position in the industry will become much clearer.
Looking ahead, I don’t think this is an isolated case. As regulations mature, more traditional giants will follow JPMorgan and Coinbase—perhaps we’ll see large banks issuing on-chain bonds, insurers managing policies on-chain, tech giants creating enterprise stablecoins for internal settlements… After all, every major client becomes a stable cash flow source for on-chain infrastructure.
Of course, this raises the bar: performance must handle massive transaction volumes, privacy must protect corporate data, and compliance must embed auditing and risk controls directly into the system. Simply put, U.S. policy is shifting on-chain infrastructure from past “global wild growth” to “localized precision cultivation.” This upgrade will favor compliant domestic chains and modular innovation networks the most.
ZK: Privacy’s new infrastructure under policy vision
Which sectors declared “dead” might rise again? Consider ZK.
On August 13, OKB’s surge ignited Twitter and various communities. The price jumped from 46 to nearly 120—a near triple. This rally wasn’t just due to OKX burning 65.25 million previously repurchased and reserved OKB tokens, eliminating potential sell pressure. The X Layer upgrade also brought structural shifts on both supply and demand—OKB became the exclusive gas token on X Layer, with wallets, exchanges, and payment scenarios all redirecting traffic.
Supply contraction + demand concentration caused the market to instantly recognize OKB’s amplified scarcity and utility, triggering a short-term rush of capital and emotional resonance. Another variable is regulatory expectations. Markets are closely watching rumors of “OKX preparing for a U.S. IPO,” fueling speculation about U.S. market access—though actual execution depends on U.S. regulatory policy.
My view on this sector is clear: no FOMO, just observation. ZK may find revival opportunities in the compliance era—or it may be just a brief rebound. Either way, its movements warrant attention.
The latest U.S. digital asset report states individuals should be allowed private transactions on public blockchains, encouraging self-custody and privacy-enhancing technologies to reduce on-chain data leaks. The White House’s 2025 digital asset policy report also names ZK as a key path to balance privacy and compliance. This shift is striking: once, privacy coins and mixers were regulatory “blacklists”; now, policymakers admit that to attract more traditional capital on-chain, “on-chain privacy” must be addressed—and ZK is the ready-made solution.
On the enterprise side, Google Wallet has launched a ZK-powered age verification based on Succinct Labs: you can prove you’re over 18 without revealing any ID details. Sounds Web2? It’s KYC-compliant yet privacy-preserving—but this time, it runs on-chain.
Succinct has thus been thrust into the spotlight. Its token $PROVE has performed better than most recent launches, outperforming many altcoins in the current market. This case shows something important: when top tech firms and real-world use cases start adopting ZK, market patience returns.
I see ZK’s revival not as mere sentiment rebound, but a necessity of the compliance era. Once assets and transactions move on-chain, enterprises can’t accept all business details being exposed to competitors, nor can individuals tolerate their financial trails becoming transparent ledgers.
Yet regulators have clear demands: audits must be possible, traces must be traceable. This seemingly contradictory need is precisely where ZK shines: “prove legitimacy first, hide details later.” For example, interbank settlements can use ZK to verify AML compliance without revealing customer identities. Such scenarios will grow: identity verification, credit scoring… all could be reshaped by ZK. Many high-quality ZK projects haven’t launched tokens yet, but policy windows may push them to accelerate.
Last cycle, top ZK teams raised heavily, yet many secondary market performances went from “kings to zeros,” freezing the ZK sector. Can this cycle reverse the “ZK equals death in secondary markets” narrative?
I suggest watching two types: teams not yet tokenized but with solid tech and execution; and already-tokenized projects with healthy tokenomics and real progress. For me, this sector is worth observing short-term—even if it’s not time to blindly load up yet, a few breakout winners could emerge with the tide.
Policy settled, new landscape begins
As a long-term sector investor, I know clearly: once regulatory clarity arrives, structural market opportunities begin reshuffling. This round of U.S. policy clarity is genuinely redirecting capital flows and reshaping industry order.
In the short term, capital inflows and bullish sentiment from compliance wins have already lifted some sectors above the market, with stablecoin issuers and market-cap tokenized assets delivering clear price and volume signals. This is just the first wave of capital testing. More importantly, long-term structural transformation is underway. Once rules are clear and barriers defined, only truly valuable sectors will endure. Conversely, pseudo-concepts detached from real demand and built purely on speculative games will find less room to survive under strict regulation. Industry resources will flow toward more meaningful directions.
I firmly believe: real opportunities lie in aligning with structural shifts—short-term, track policy and capital flows to identify momentum entry points; long-term, focus on sectors synchronized with future finance and tech evolution. I see this cycle as the crypto industry’s “Fourth Phase of the Internet” moment. For those interested, check my previous article on web3 industry development: the internet once faced rule-setting and tech shifts, short-term pain, but ultimately achieved a larger, healthier ecosystem.
The crypto industry is now leaving behind chaotic, unregulated growth and entering a mature phase with clear rules. Those who seize policy advantages during this window period will be better positioned in the next stage of the landscape.
New channels have been laid. Those moving with the wind will reach the future faster.
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