WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump will host the first White House Crypto Summit on March 7 as part of his effort to make the United States “the crypto capital of the world.” The summit is expected to cover topics including strategic crypto reserves, regulatory frameworks, and other key issues.
The summit will feature a roundtable meeting with crypto executives, administration officials, and members of the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets. There will also be a more extensive, invite-only reception for those not invited to the roundtable discussions.
Behind the scenes, the long-awaited event will be chaired by White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks and administered by the Presidential Working Group’s executive director Bo Hines.
Many of the who’s who of the cryptocurrency industry will be in attendance, including MicroStrategy executive Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Robinhood head Vladimir Tenev.
“We appreciate all of the interest but need to keep it small to have a meaningful conversation,” Sacks said on social media platform X.
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump fully embraced bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry, advocating for pro-crypto policies. Shortly after returning to the White House, he signed an executive order to promote U.S. leadership in digital assets and financial technology.
The summit is expected to be a noteworthy event for the industry, potentially driving future policies that could impact global financial markets and improve the regulatory landscape.
“It’s kind of a momentous occasion that crypto as an industry is being invited to the White House,” Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, told The Epoch Times. “The Biden administration had a very hostile posture towards crypto.”
Whether the festivities will trigger significant price action for bitcoin and other digital assets remains to be seen. Crypto markets suffered a $800 billion rout in February, with analysts noting that the industry had become too ebullient regarding how quickly the new administration could deliver on its pro-crypto campaign promises.
Trump has vowed to create a cryptocurrency reserve, deliver regulatory relief for the industry, and foster innovation in a business-friendly environment aiming to make America more competitive in this space.
Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
As part of his campaign promise, Trump recently revealed plans to create a crypto reserve, a national stockpile similar to the U.S. gold reserves, that could be tapped for future use.In line with this, he signed an executive order on March 6, just before the summit, to establish a “strategic bitcoin reserve.”
“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin protocol permanently caps the total supply of bitcoin (BTC) at 21 million coins, and has never been hacked. As a result of its scarcity and security, Bitcoin is often referred to as ‘digital gold,’” the executive order stated. “Because there is a fixed supply of BTC, there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.”
The U.S. government currently controls about 200,000 bitcoin tokens, valued at about $17 billion, from criminal seizures.
According to the order, within 30 days of its issuance, each agency is required to review its authority to transfer any government-held bitcoin to this strategic bitcoin reserve.
The Bitcoin logo appears on the display screen of a cryptocurrency ATM in Salem, N.H., on Feb. 9, 2021. (Charles Krupa/AP Photo)
The president’s order also mandates the establishment of a “United States Digital Asset Stockpile,” which will manage and maintain other digital assets, excluding bitcoin.
Trump’s executive order follows his post on Truth Social on March 2, which stated that the U.S. government would establish a national reserve featuring bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Ripple (XRP). This announcement sparked a significant rally in the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin prices rising to around $90,000, adding $300 billion to the market value, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Trump’s statement has prompted debate over whether the strategic reserve should focus solely on bitcoin or include other cryptocurrencies as well. Many within the bitcoin community have voiced concerns about diversifying the reserve.
John Deaton, an attorney and founder of CryptoLaw, told the Epoch Times that the summit’s primary focus will be determining the specifics of the reserve.
While some argue that the United States should aggressively purchase bitcoin for the reserve, Deaton pointed out that such a purchase would typically require an act of Congress to authorize the use of government funds.
“It would be almost kind of silly to think that America is going to print more money or go into debt to buy bitcoin,” Deaton said. “So, what some people think is that the government might sell some of its gold at Fort Knox to buy bitcoin.”
Regulations in Washington
Effective regulations are essential to address key issues in the crypto industry and will be another major topic of discussion at the White House summit.According to Schulp, one of the key regulatory questions is determining when crypto should be treated as a security, a question the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been working on.
Congress will likely need to step in to resolve this debate once and for all, Schulp noted.
The other question is the regulatory framework for a stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to an underlying asset, such as the dollar or gold.
“Without the stablecoin regulatory framework, it’s much more difficult to kind of make the wheels turn,” Schulp said. “The general thrust of the regulations is protecting consumers by making sure that the stable coin is, in fact, stable.”
Congress is embroiled in two key pieces of legislation.
Last month, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) introduced the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. This bill aims to produce clear regulations for cryptocurrencies pegged to the U.S. dollar and other reserve assets to create “a safe and pro-growth regulatory framework that will unleash innovation.”
Several of his colleagues, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), supported the legislation.
“Creating a bipartisan regulatory framework for stablecoins is critical to maintaining the U.S.’s dollar dominance and promoting responsible financial innovation,” Lummis said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the Senate voted to overturn crypto-related regulations implemented under the previous administration.
Lawmakers in the upper chamber reversed a digital payments rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a rule mandating decentralized finance platforms report client information to the IRS. Republican lawmakers and market participants have overwhelmingly criticized these measures as burdensome and a barrier to financial innovation.
“The Biden administration did everything it could to stifle financial innovation in the United States, threatening to send digital asset companies overseas,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement. “The Senate is working to undo these burdensome regulations one at a time to restore financial freedom for the American people.”
The industry is waiting for the SEC to approve more crypto-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), particularly in smaller digital currencies. The top Wall Street regulator’s approval of broad-based crypto ETFs would allow investors to diversify their holdings in conventional brokerage accounts.
The SEC recently confirmed that meme coins are not securities and can be compared to collectibles like baseball cards.
