The U.S. government began releasing U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data on public blockchains on Thursday, marking the latest show of support for the crypto industry by the Trump administration. According to media reports citing U.S. Commerce Department officials, this initiative provides a new channel for releasing economic data, but not a replacement.

The U.S. Commerce Department has on-chained the "official hash" of its 2025 quarterly GDP data (and in some cases, the total GDP figure) to nine blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Stellar, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Polygon PoS, and Optimism. Simultaneously, decentralized oracle service providers Pyth and Chainlink are involved, acting as third parties to supply data to crypto applications.

For clarification, "Official hash" likely refers to a hash value—a unique digital fingerprint generated from data using standardized algorithms like SHA-256 or SHA-3, used to verify data integrity and prevent unauthorized alterations. For example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) notes that users can find the "official hash" for software files on the NIST website to confirm that the downloaded software has not been tampered with.

Lutnick previewed this change during a White House cabinet meeting the previous Tuesday, telling Trump that departmental statistics would be released via blockchain, "because you are the crypto president."

The Trump administration plans to seek an expansion of the program's scope in the future. Lutnick said earlier this week in a meeting with Trump and other federal agency heads that the use of crypto technology would not be limited to economic indicators. "We're going to put GDP on the blockchain, allow people to distribute data via the blockchain, and then we will extend this mechanism throughout the entire government for all departments to use."

Media analysis suggests that the Commerce Department's adoption of blockchain to carry some of its most critical, market-moving economic data amounts to an endorsement of the technology by the U.S. government. Currently, blockchain is increasingly being used for trading money market funds and stocks, having long surpassed its cryptocurrency origins.

Industry insiders pointed out that the entire Trump administration team has embraced this move. With today's announcement, we have entered a world where government data exists on the blockchain, and market participants can engage in real-time.

Trump Fires Head of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The U.S. nonfarm payroll report released in early August showed that job growth in recent months was far lower than previous data. Trump suggested these figures were manipulated for political purposes, although he did not provide evidence to prove this.

Trump fired the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that same day. The latest shift in U.S. government data release comes weeks after that event. However, Commerce Department officials stated that the blockchain initiative is unrelated to the firing of the BLS commissioner.

Officials said the push to release data on the blockchain was led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick. Earlier this year, he also proposed plans to exclude the impact of government spending from GDP calculations. GDP data is released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which is under the Commerce Department.

Evolution of the U.S. Government's Stance

For years, governments worldwide have been experimenting with blockchain, some testing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on public networks, others considering it for issuing digital credentials. Examples in the U.S. include:

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has used the Avalanche blockchain to digitize car titles.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also researched using the technology to speed up airport passenger security screening.

Earlier this year, spurred by Musk, the Government Efficiency department established by Trump also explored using blockchain to reduce costs and increase government transparency.

The U.S. government's adoption also reflects the evolution of the crypto industry itself. Years ago, many commercial projects attempting to deploy the technology failed because they focused on private blockchains, which were more costly and had greater managerial disagreements. Under Lutnick's impetus, the Commerce Department chose to utilize public blockchains like Ethereum, which are run by global computers and rely on volunteer developers to update the software.

According to officials, crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini are also involved. The Commerce Department purchases cryptocurrency through these exchanges to pay the "Gas" fees required for on-chain transactions. Kraken and Gemini also plan to go public in the coming months.

Trump Embraces the Crypto Sphere

Today, the crypto industry has become a political force. Investors and executives are leveraging well-funded political action committees, similar to the influence traditional financial industries like banking have in Washington.

Trump was once skeptical of cryptocurrency but has now become a champion for the industry. The crypto industry has donated actively to Trump's reelection campaign and supported many pro-crypto members of Congress. During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to relax regulations to promote the industry's development.

Upon taking office, Trump quickly delivered on his promises. For instance, he has created a Bitcoin reserve and a government inventory of cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana. He has also appointed pro-crypto heads of regulatory agencies and terminated an enforcement case against Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange. He has also signed a stablecoin regulation law stipulating that stablecoin values should be pegged to fiat currency.

The Trump family has also significantly expanded its crypto footprint, involved in everything from Bitcoin mining to stablecoin issuance. Next week, a token launched by the Trump-family-backed World Liberty Financial will be listed on centralized exchanges.

These positions by Trump stand in stark contrast to the situation under former U.S. President Biden. At that time, U.S. regulators held a more skeptical attitude towards cryptocurrencies.