Sitting beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, more than two dozen of the most powerful figures in the U.S. cryptocurrency industry, together worth many billions of dollars, gathered in the White House on Friday for an audience with President Trump, The New York Times reported.
When Mr. Trump entered the ornate State Dining Room after a short wait, the executives rose to applaud him.
Mr. Trump was holding a first-of-its-kind “crypto summit,” meeting face to face with the leaders of virtually all of the top crypto companies in the United States. Only a small portion of the gathering, which was scheduled to last four hours, was broadcast to the public. But it offered a vivid illustration of Mr. Trump’s recent embrace of crypto, a renegade industry that has spent years battling with U.S. regulators.
Several executives, including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, offered words of gratitude to Mr. Trump. They called him “wonderful.” Saying they were “overjoyed” with his approach.
Since he took office, Mr. Trump has orchestrated a complete transformation of federal policy on crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission has almost entire reversed an aggressive campaign by the Biden administration to crack down on the industry. The agency, moving with astonishing speed, has issued legal guidance to help crypto companies, ended investigations into major firms, and dropped lawsuits against two of the largest exchanges, Coinbase and Kraken.
Reuters reported: In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Donald Trump announced that his executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of XRP, SOL, and ADA currencies, surprising traders by choosing three lesser-known tokens and sending their prices soaring.
Trump also added that bitcoin and ether, the two biggest cryptocurrencies, would be included in the reserve.
It is not clear how the strategic bitcoin reserve will work, nor how it will benefit taxpayers.
White House crypto czar David Sacks said Thursday the federal government would have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings in the reserve, without offering details.
“The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited in the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called ‘digital gold’, Sacks said.
President Trump’s moves to support the crypto industry have drawn concern from some conservatives and crypto backers over giveaways to an already wealthy community and delegitimizing the digital currency industry.
NBC News reported: The White House hosted its first-ever “crypto summit” Friday, convening top executives from various digital asset firms to discuss the Trump administration’s commitment to rolling back the aggressive regulatory posture the Biden administration took toward the industry.
However, some in the crypto world were left disappointed that the Trump administration did not signal more active support for the industry, leading the prices of the very assets the summit was supposed to acclaim to sag Friday.
The price of bitcoin was down about 3% in the late-afternoon trading and was set to finish the week down approximately 7%, to $87,000.