Trump promises to end ‘federal bureaucracy’s war on crypto’ at first Cryptocurrency Summit

The White House held its first Cryptocurrency Summit on Friday, bringing together regulators, officials and industry leaders. Donald Trump presented the event as another step towards his promise to turn the country into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world."

The president recalled that on the eve of the meeting he had ordered the creation of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which he defined as "a virtual Fort Knox, for digital gold to be housed within the United States Treasury." The executive order mandates the creation of two reserves, one for Bitcoin and another for the other cryptocurrencies already held by the state. For the time being, no new assets will be bought and no current assets will be sold.

Trump also promised to crack down on what he called the Biden administration's "Operation Choke Point 2.0:" "Regulators 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." His team, he promised, is currently working to "end the federal bureaucracy’s war on crypto."

"Its truly wonderfull to see how things have changed and how the pendulum has swung back," influential investor Cameron Winklevoss, who was invited along with his brother and business partner, Tyler, with whom he co-founded Gemini, said during the meeting. He praised, too, the administration's measures and assured that they were "looking forward" to contributing to these efforts. "The US won the internet and the US should win Crypto as well."

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong defined the summit as a "historic event" and announced that his company plans to hire about 1,000 employees in the country "as a direct result" of Trump's policies in the first months.

"This is the most pro-crypto Congress as well," he said in a video recorded outside the West Wing of the White House. During the crypto-summit, he later said, the president called on representatives and senators to legislate in favor of cryptocurrency before the August recess, including returning the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into law.

"Technology is at the foundation of the Trump presidency," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said for his part. "This Administration is going to use Bitcoin, digital assets, and blockchain to drive America forward and remain the leader in the global economy," he promised.

However, some industry members expressed discontent, such as Jeff Park, an executive at cryptocurrency investment group Bitwise. "In my humble opinion, we asked for too little," he wrote after the meeting at X. While he welcomed the creation of the strategic reserves, he lamented the exclusion of other cryptocurrencies and questioned the durability of the initiative.

"My one ask for the industry is that we strive to set our bars higher, where we demand really meaningful things so we can celebrate really meaningful things, especially as we head into the heat of the two most important things that will come out of Congress: market structure and stablecoin legislations," he asked.