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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump brought together founders, CEOs and investors Friday for a summit billed by the White House as the first of its kind, focused on advancing his campaign trail pledge to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”
The cryptocurrency summit, described in a call to reporters by senior White House officials as a roundtable-style event delivering an opportunity for the president to hear directly from key players in the industry, comes on the heels of a fresh executive order on the topic Trump signed Thursday night.
The order to establish a government bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile stems from the administration’s belief that the U.S. sold off about half of the roughly 400,000 bitcoin it had obtained through criminal or civil forfeiture proceedings, including involving the Silk Road, officials said. Trump has called the move “foolish." The administration argued that the value of the currency today would have been worth around $17 million had the U.S. held onto it.
The reserve, described by Trump as a “virtual Fort Knox,” will hold the around 200,000 bitcoin it believes it still possesses, where it cannot be sold and will be held onto long-term.
Officials noted that the federal government does not know exactly how much bitcoin it has and the first step as part of the new order will be to conduct an audit to understand what it is working with before laying out a strategy. As part of the new action, the Treasury and Commerce departments will look to develop plans to add to the reserve without using taxpayer money.
Separately, the order will create a digital asset stockpile to house all other digital assets after Trump, in a post on Truth Social over the weekend, noted he wanted a place to hold lesser-known cryptocurrencies as well.
A senior White House official on the call with reporters noted that bitcoin is purposefully treated differently.
“The reality is that bitcoin is special,” Trump’s “crypto czar” David Sacks told reporters at the White House. “You know, bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency. It was the first one. It’s been around for over 15 years. It has a market cap.”
He added that it is also the most decentralized and that it has never been “effectively counterfeited.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity for economic growth and innovation in our financial sector, and we’ll really go a long way,” Trump said at the summit.
The creation of the reserve fulfills a promise Trump made on the campaign trail as he pledged to be the nation’s “first crypto president.” His embrace of the industry also marks a pivot on the issue from the president, who previously expressed skepticism and once said it seems like a “scam.”
Trump at the summit criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the issue while officials said they expected attendees to discuss rolling back regulations from the Biden era that they view as too burdensome on the industry.
The president also called on Congress to act on legislation addressing cryptocurrency and digital assets before lawmakers’ August recess.
