The cryptocurrency industry flocked to Washington on Friday for the White House’s first-ever crypto summit, where President Trump and his cabinet made clear the “war on crypto” is over in Washington.
The summit brought together industry experts, pro-crypto lawmakers and administration officials, marking a notable moment for the digital assets space as it looks to reach mainstream acceptance.
“My administration is working to end the federal bureaucracy war on crypto, which was really going on pretty wildly during Biden,” Trump said during remarks at the summit Friday afternoon.
“Under the [Biden] administration, regulators strong-armed banks — I mean, they really did — they strong-armed banks into closing the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking some money transfers to and from exchanges, and they weaponized government against the entire industry,” the president continued.
Crypto executives and advocates have argued the Biden administration shuttered its doors to the digital assets space and chose to instead pursue probes into various cryptocurrency exchanges and firms.
Since Trump was sworn into office, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed several of the investigations into cryptocurrency firms, many of which were represented at the summit, including Coinbase and Ripple among others.
The SEC also created a task force on crypto as the regulator prepares to change the direction of regulation of the space.
David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, called out cryptocurrency Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who said earlier in the day it was more likely they would end up in jail than the White House a year ago.
“We never thought that we’d get attacked the way we did in our backyard after trying to do the right thing for so many years and always trying to raise the bar with respect to regulation,” Cameron Winklevoss said during the roundtable. “It’s truly wonderful to see how things have changed and how the pendulum has swung back in the way it has.”
Trump touted his executive order, signed a day earlier, which created a strategic bitcoin reserve and separate digital assets stockpile for newer cryptocurrencies. The president called this a “virtual Fort Knox,” in reference to America’s gold reserves.
Under the order, the reserve will be established with bitcoin that was already seized by federal law enforcement during financial crime investigations.
The stockpile will do the same with other newer digital assets like Ripple, Solana or Cardano that are already in the government’s possession.
Trump and Sacks emphasized this will not come at the expense of taxpayers, a concern raised by some in the industry earlier this week.
The Treasury and Commerce Departments were also ordered to explore new pathways to accumulate bitcoin holdings if it does not cost taxpayers anything, along with a full audit of the federal government’s digital asset holdings.
The estimated 200,000 bitcoin being placed in the reserve will not be sold off as part of a “long term strategy to maximize the value.”
The U.S. was once believed to have 400,000 bitcoins in its possession through seizures but about half of it was sold off in an “ad hoc manner” over the past 10 years, a senior administration official told reporters Friday.
Based on bitcoin’s current value, the U.S. lost out on an estimated $17 billion by selling off the assets over the past decade.
The layout for a separate bitcoin reserve comes after the Trump administration faced backlash earlier this week from some in the industry who argued bitcoin is the only suitable coin for a reserve given it is the oldest and most popular cryptocurrency.
Trump slammed the Biden administration for selling some of the crypto holdings, though it is not immediately clear when these holdings were sold.
“From this day on, America will follow the rule that every Bitcoin knows very well, never sell your Bitcoin,” Trump said. “That’s a little phrase that they have. Is it right? Who the hell knows.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the moves are preparing the U.S. to be a leader in digital asset strategy as the administration undoes many of the Biden administration’s crypto policies.
“The Biden administration’s actions did nothing other than punish innovators,” he said.
Bessent said the Treasury Department will be working with the Comptroller of the Currency, the Internal Revenue Service to amend all guidance and “put a lot of thought into the stablecoin regime.
“We are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world, and we will use stablecoins to do that,” Bessent added.
Trump also laid out a potential timeline for digital asset legislation, telling the roundtable he expects to see such measures on his desk before August recess.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-La.) and Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) were at the roundtable. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who introduced a measure last session to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, noted she was sick and not able to attend. She has hinted she will have a crypto-related announcement next week.
