20

January

2025

Trump rescinds Biden-era EOs, likely setting back the BIS’s proposed EDD rule for large cloud service providers

Immediately after assuming office, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that expressly repealed the former President Joe Biden’s October 2023 order on the safe and responsible development of AI (‘artificial intelligence‘). The repealed order had established several directives for the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on which parts of its January 2024 Proposed Rule was based that seeks to impose KYC (‘know-your-customer‘) and enhanced due diligence requirements on large cloud service providers and were based.

The BIS’s Proposed Rule would implement additional measures to address the ‘ongoing national emergency’ related to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities. It would expand on existing U.S. export control frameworks in an effort to deter malicious actors from exploiting U.S. technologies and services by imposing new restrictions and due diligence requirements, particularly for cloud infrastructure providers and other potentially vulnerable platforms. Organizations involved in providing or hosting software, data processing, or cloud services would be subject to heightened compliance obligations under the proposed regulations, having a potentially profound impact on the digital assets industry. The BIS has not indicated whether its publication of a final rule could still be expected or whether it would accord with a lesser scope than the Proposed Rule.

Last updated 05/21/2025.


United States (Regulatory)

History:

  • Jan 20, 2025: President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order titled “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” that revokes—among other of former President Joe Biden’s Executive Orders—the order on responsible AI development, potentially affecting the BIS’s ultimate approach under a final rule (though the BIS has not indicated whether a final rule could still be anticipated). E.O. No. 14148 (90 Fed. Reg. 8237).
  • Jan 29, 2024: BIS publishes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that incorporates considerations from public input on the 2021 ANPRM and the mandates included in the October 2023 Executive Order, outlining expanded export controls and compliance duties aimed at curbing significant malicious cyber-enabled activities. 89 Fed. Reg. 5698.
  • Oct 30, 2023: President Joe Biden signs an Executive Order on the safe and responsible development of AI technologies. E.O. 14110 (86 Fed. Reg. 6837).
  • Sep 24, 2021: BIS publishes an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the basis of the January Executive Order, seeking public input on how to shape forthcoming regulations. 86 Fed. Reg. 53018.
  • Jan 19, 2021: President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order expanding on concerns addressed under former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Executive Order. E.O. 13984 (86 Fed. Reg. 6837).
  • Apr 01, 2015: President Barack Obama signs an Executive Order declaring a national emergency in connection with significant malicious cyber-enabled activities and allowing for the blocking of property of persons involved under U.S. sanctions and export controls. E.O. 13694 (80 Fed. Reg. 18077).
See the BIS Proposed Rule
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Amil Malik

Amil assists with various client matters in connection with digital assets and the adoption of blockchain technology, including general corporate law, securities law, and financial services regulation. She joined DLx Law after receiving her J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law, where much of her studies focused on national security and cybersecurity law.

Amil received her B.B.A./B.A. with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin. Between university and law school, Amil worked as a mergers and acquisitions analyst in New York, where she performed financial valuations and analysis as part of advisory services provided to sell-side and buy-side clients across media, consumer, technology, shipping, and financial technology industries. Amil is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.

Tom Momberg

+17186645458 tom.momberg@dlxlaw.com

Tom advises clients in an array of matters related to blockchain technology, decentralized finance, banking and payments systems, financial products, and financial technology applications. He joined DLx Law as an attorney after working as in-house counsel for a payments and banking software service provider, advising on various legal and regulatory matters, operations, risk, customer due diligence, and corporate best practices.

Tom received his J.D. from George Mason University Law School in Virginia and his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tom is a former journalist, and, while in law school, he interned for DLx Law and served as a law clerk for several federal institutions in Washington, D.C., including the CFTC, FCC, and House Judiciary Committee. Tom is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of Oregon.

Sarah Chen

+19296345691 sarah.chen@dlxlaw.com

Sarah advises clients in all matters related to the adoption of blockchain technology, including general corporate, venture financing, securities laws and financial regulatory. Prior to joining DLx Law, Sarah was a senior associate in the M&A group of an international law firm headquartered in New York City, advising public companies and private equity firms on mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions.

Sarah received her B.A. from New York University, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Columbia Law School where she was a James Kent Scholar. During law school, Sarah also served as a judicial extern to the Hon. Debra Ann Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Sarah is licensed to practice law in the State of New York.

Gregory Strong

+3027665535 greg.strong@dlxlaw.com

Greg focuses on advising entities regarding legal issues associated with the adoption of blockchain technology. Prior to joining DLx Law, Greg was a Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice. He served as the Director of the Investor Protection Unit for three years and was responsible for administering and enforcing the provisions of the Delaware Securities Act. Prior to his appointment as Director of the Investor Protection Unit, Greg was the Director of the Consumer Protection Unit for three years.

Greg has successfully represented the State of Delaware in many complex civil enforcement matters alleging violations of Delaware investor and consumer protection statutes and has extensive litigation experience. Greg graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. in Finance and received his J.D./M.B.A. from Temple University.

Angela Angelovska-Wilson

+12023651448 angela@dlxlaw.com

Angela is an early distributed ledger technology adopter and a leading authority in the evolving global legal and regulatory landscape surrounding distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. Prior to co-founding DLx Law, Angela served as the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer of Digital Asset and was part of the founding team.

Prior to joining Digital Asset, Angela was a partner at Reed Smith where she regularly advised clients on the implementation of new technologies to finance and the complex regulatory schemes involved in the development, creation, marketing, sale and servicing of various financial services and products. Before Reed Smith, Angela spent most of her career in various roles at Latham & Watkins, where she was recognized by The Legal 500 US among the top finance attorneys in the U.S.

Angela has a deep understanding of the Fin-Tech industry and in particular the distributed ledger industry, having been involved in a number of startups in various roles, as an employee, entrepreneur and advisor. In addition to DLx Law, Angela is also co-founder of Sila Inc., an innovative technology company.