Great, yeah a lot of crypto builders thrive in power vacuums. So the Trump administration was convenient for the 2017 bubble, as a debilitated SEC was necessary for the token launches that made issuers millions (and billions). And a paralyzed Congress was necessary to get non-establishment people confirmed who will last many administrations. All of that lost its utility by 2020 as the outcomes were mostly solidified and favorable.
I would say it is slightly more than moderately successful.
The SEC still hasn't approved a digital commodity trust yet ("bitcoin ETF") but enough wealthy people are involved now that have created surrogates that it isn't as important.
Maybe some college kid in the late 2020s will make some Netflix conspiracy documentary about the "revolving door in crypto", I would call that success.
There is also an interesting argument about crypto being a convenient drain for excess liquidity in the system (injected by the stimulus), which is why it's not being regulated too heavily.
If stocks & crypto were less appealing, perhaps we would all experience higher velocity of money & inflation since demand would turn to "real assets".
Extrapolating any competence from policy makers on this is a bit too fantastic of a conclusion at this point in time. Cryptocurrency just does not have an adversarial relationship with the US government, and the musings of some policy makers that create existential threats just are not the opinion of an amorphous entity (which also doesn't exist). The longer the rest of us are familiar with the technology, the more likely the gradient shifts to a less and less probability of adversarial relationship with the US government.
I would say it is slightly more than moderately successful.
The SEC still hasn't approved a digital commodity trust yet ("bitcoin ETF") but enough wealthy people are involved now that have created surrogates that it isn't as important.
Maybe some college kid in the late 2020s will make some Netflix conspiracy documentary about the "revolving door in crypto", I would call that success.