President Donald Trump said Friday that he was committed to making the U.S. a world leader in cryptocurrencies as industry leaders heaped praise on him for reversing what they said had been unfair attacks on digital assets by the previous administration.
"I thought it was very important that we stay in the front of this one," Trump said at the first-ever White House "Crypto Summit."
A former crypto-skeptic, Trump has warmly embraced an industry that's shown him significant love in return and spent heavily to help him win last year's election.
"It's truly wonderful to see how things have changed and how the pendulum has swung back," Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of the crypto exchange Gemini, told Trump.
The summit included crypto company executives, Cabinet officials and lawmakers, many of whom took turns raving about Trump's leadership on digital assets. The emboldened industry said it was unfairly treated by the Biden administration and helped Trump and other Republicans score wins in the last election.
Trump reiterated his eagerness to help the crypto industry with friendly legislation and light-touch regulations.
Friday's summit was the latest in a series of actions the new Trump administration has taken to try to boost the crypto industry. Notably, that has included the Securities and Exchange Commission's dropping of several enforcement actions against large crypto companies, including those whose leaders were at Friday's summit.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order establishing a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve," which essentially bars the U.S. government from selling bitcoin – currently valued at about $17 billion – it has acquired through criminal and civil asset forfeiture.
The order also allows the Treasury and Commerce departments to come up with "budget-neutral" plans for the government to acquire additional bitcoin, though no details of what those plans might look like have been released.
The order is a significant boost for bitcoin's credibility and legitimacy. The oldest and most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin has gone from an experiment by libertarian cryptography enthusiasts to an asset worth $1.7 trillion in less than two decades.
"Bitcoin is special," David Sacks, the Trump administration's "crypto czar," told reporters Friday.
Trump's order also creates a "Digital Asset Stockpile," where the government will hold seized cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. On Sunday, Trump sent crypto prices on a short-lived surge after a surprise announcement that he wanted the government to hold lesser-known cryptocurrencies XRP, solana and cardano.
It's unclear why Trump named those specific cryptocurrencies and not others. His announcement caused a stir in the crypto community about whether the government would pick winners and losers among various types of cryptocurrencies.
Yesha Yadav, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said it's clear the Trump administration wanted to avoid getting dragged into that kind of fight with the way the executive order was worded.
"It's unsurprising that the Trump [executive order] from yesterday has been quite neutral," she said.
Trump's foray into crypto has included backing a personal meme coin and other ventures to enrich himself and his family. Those moves have drawn swift criticism from Democrats and even some crypto enthusiasts who support Trump.
Sacks told reporters Friday that Trump's personal crypto-related projects were "irrelevant" to the administration's work related to the industry. That work, Sacks said, was focused on making the U.S. the world capital in crypto through fair and clear regulations that promote innovation while still protecting investors.
Sacks added his role was not to try to persuade Americans to buy crypto.
"You should do your homework because this is a very volatile industry," Sacks said. "It's not for everyone."
