ISTANBUL 

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to encourage the development of cryptocurrencies in the US and to explore the possibility of creating a national digital asset stockpile.

“The digital asset industry plays a crucial role in innovation and economic development in the United States, as well as our Nation’s international leadership,” the Thursday order said.

Establishing regulations and technologies related to cryptocurrency and its advancement in the US takes up the majority of the order.

Creating a group called the Working Group on Digital Asset Markets to examine a national digital asset stockpile that is "potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement effort" is one of the key aspects.

The order also instructed institutions to make recommendations to the working group on regulations affecting digital asset markets that should be revoked or amended.

But it also prohibits institutions from developing or issuing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

Campaigning for the presidency last year, Trump promised to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”