White House cryptocurrency summit: How the digital asset sector came of age

Leaders of the cryptocurrency sector met in Washington on Friday for what the Trump administration has called the first White House crypto summit.

Among the digital asset, tech and crypto chief executives in attendance at the meeting were Coinbase's Brian Armstrong, Robinhood's Vlad Tenev, Chainlink's Sergey Nazarov, Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse and Kraken's Arjun Sethi.

“After the previous administration unfairly prosecuted the digital asset space, President Trump’s policy vision represents a new era for digital financial technology,” read a White House press release. “The administration is committed to providing a clear regulatory framework, enabling innovation, and protecting economic liberty.”

Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer for Coinbase, said that the meeting was an inflection point for the US.

Shortly after the meeting, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) made an announcement reaffirming that cryptocurrency activities were permissible for US national banks and loosened regulations.

“Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks to engage in crypto-related activities and ensure that these bank activities are treated consistently by the OCC, regardless of the underlying technology,” said acting OCC comptroller Rodney Hood.

“I will continue to work diligently to ensure regulations are effective and not excessive, while maintaining a strong federal banking system.”

The much anticipated gathering took place a day after Mr Trump signed an executive order establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve.

That reserve will be capitalised with Bitcoin owned by the federal government “that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings”, David Sacks, the recently appointed White House AI and crypto tsar, said on Thursday, trying to blunt some of the criticism that had been levelled at the initial plan.

Donald Trump goes all in on crypto

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“This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime. It is estimated that the US government owns about 200,000 Bitcoin; however, there has never been a complete audit … The US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the reserve. It will be kept as a store of value.”

Among those who criticised the plan was former US labour secretary Robert Reich.

“This US crypto reserve could result in a direct wealth transfer of wealth from taxpayers to crypto industry donors and President Trump himself, who recently launched his own memecoin and plans to create a crypto exchange through his media company,” Mr Reich wrote on Instagram.

Although he previously expressed concern over the concept of digital currencies, Mr Trump has changed his stance on the sector.

Some have pointed out that former president Joe Biden's attempts to regulate crypto firms may have given Mr Trump a political opening to win the support of those with an affinity for the digital currency.

Support for crypto even made its way into the 2024 Republican National Committee's platform, and on the campaign trail Mr Trump consistently promised to take a completely different approach to Mr Biden. In response, crypto sector participants donated heavily to Mr Trump's presidential campaign.

Shortly after taking office, Mr Trump signed an executive order to “strengthen US leadership in digital finance”, widely seen as a major victory for the industry.

The Trump White House also quickly moved to drop investigations and litigation against crypto companies such as Coinbase, which had been heavily scrutinised by the Biden administration. Yet Mr Trump can be fickle about who and what he decides to support.

Sam Blatteis, chief executive of The Mena Catalysts, a market entry firm for Web3 multinationals expanding in the Gulf economy, said that crypto executives need to be able to read the room and adjust accordingly in the weeks and months ahead.

“The crypto firms need to talk in Donald Trump’s language, which means big deals, big job creation and America first,” Mr Blatteis told The National, adding that so far, cryptocurrency leaders appear to be doing that successfully.

“Crypto players are watching President Trump like traders watch Bitcoin, and it’s sometimes volatile, but it’s also full of opportunity.”

Mr Blatteis said that while the US government is only now taking a more enthusiastic approach to crypto and digital assets, other countries are already in that mindset.

“In the Gulf, with banks offering digital assets, the lines are blurring between old and new money,” he said.

But the enthusiasm is not universal. Crypto critics are plentiful, with some highlighting how much electricity is needed to maintain the cryptocurrency infrastructure.

Others point to a lengthy list of incidents in which crypto exchanges have been hacked, contradicting what some claim to be the biggest strength of the sector – security.

Despite those concerns, with Mr Trump winning four more years in the White House, the industry and its many enthusiastic supporters have managed to bolster their existence.

That enthusiasm was on full display in Abu Dhabi in December, when Mr Trump's son Eric delivered a speech predicting that Bitcoin would hit $1 million in value, and said his father would “fight like hell” to protect crypto from overregulation.

Friday's meeting at the White House was led by Mr Sacks and the digital asset working group’s executive director, Bo Hines.