The first White House digital asset summit ended with no new policies released. The market fell after Trump reiterated previous policies.

Author: Weilin, PANews

As expected, the first digital asset summit at the White House did not bring any surprises, but was instead a performance show between Trump and supporters of the crypto industry.

At 4:40 am on March 8th, Beijing time, US President Trump delivered a brief speech at the first White House Digital Asset Summit. He said, "Last year, I promised to make the United States a global Bitcoin superpower and the world's crypto capital. We are taking historic action to fulfill this promise, and suggested: "From today, the United States will follow the rules that every Bitcoin holder knows well - never sell your Bitcoin."

Trump mentioned that the day before the summit, he signed an executive order to establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin and a digital asset reserve, and at the same time stated that he would end the "Stranglehold 2.0" against the crypto industry under the Biden administration.

Trump: "Never sell your Bitcoin", build a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and end Operation Stranglehold 2.0

Trump said at the opening, "Welcome to the first White House Digital Asset Summit. I know many of you have been fighting for this for years, and it is an honor to be with you at the White House. Last year, I promised to make the United States the global Bitcoin superpower and the world's crypto capital. We are taking historic actions to deliver on that promise, as all of you here know."

There were many crypto policy officials and corporate executives present, and the meeting participants sitting next to Trump included: White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Small Business Administration Director Kelly Loeffler, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham, House Digital Assets Subcommittee Chairman Bryan Steil, and White House Digital Assets Policy Advisor Bo Hines, among others.

It is reported that this is the first time that the United States has hosted the White House Digital Asset Summit. When speaking at this historic event, Trump said: "Yesterday, I signed an executive order to formally create our strategic Bitcoin reserve, which will become a digital 'Fort Knox' for storing digital gold and belong to the United States Treasury." He emphasized that the federal government already holds a large number of Bitcoins, about 200,000, which were obtained through various law enforcement actions.

Trump focused his criticism on past federal policies, particularly under President Biden, noting that the government "foolishly sold tens of thousands of Bitcoins that would have been worth billions of dollars if they hadn't sold them." He proposed a new guiding principle for the new administration, advising: "From this day forward, the United States will follow a rule that every Bitcoin holder knows well - never sell your Bitcoin."

Trump also instructed the Treasury and Commerce departments to find cost-free ways to increase their Bitcoin holdings. Trump assured attendees: “The Treasury and Commerce departments will also explore new ways to accumulate additional Bitcoin for the reserve, provided that there is no cost to taxpayers.”

When talking about regulation, Trump highlighted the plan to end Operation Choke Point 2.0 and criticized the Biden administration for pressuring banks to close accounts related to crypto businesses. "Regulators are forcing banks to close the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs," Trump said, promising that under his leadership, this practice will end.

Trump finally expressed his support for Congress's work on stablecoins and digital assets legislation, and urged the passage of relevant regulations as soon as possible before the August recess to provide clear guidance. According to previous plans, the initial goal was to submit legislation within the first 100 days of his term, but the timetable has now been extended by 4 months.

The failure to mention the new policy was lower than expected, which caused a brief decline in the market. The guests at the meeting collectively spoke in a vain manner.

After Trump's speech, White House artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency director David Sacks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Small Business Administration Director Kelly Loeffler, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer all mentioned some encryption policies, but there was no disclosure of the latest progress, and they expressed their gratitude to Trump.

Among them, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "In this executive order, the Treasury Department's important responsibilities involve tax policy and risk weight assessment. In this regard, I can assure you that we will work closely with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke and revise all inappropriate existing guidelines. In addition, we will carefully and prudently develop a stablecoin regulatory framework. As President Trump has instructed, we will ensure that the U.S. dollar continues to be the world's dominant reserve currency and use stablecoins to strengthen this position."

Gemini founder Cameron Winklevoss and Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov, as guests present, also expressed their gratitude for the shift in crypto policy under the Trump administration.

However, as Trump did not announce more substantial progress on crypto policy, Bitcoin prices continued to decline after the White House Digital Asset Summit, falling below the $86,000 range after the live broadcast ended.

In addition to the attendees mentioned above, according to the previous list, also attending the summit are Strategy founder Michael Saylor, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, a16z partner Chris Dixon, mining company Mara CEO Fred Thiel, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Gemini founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi and many other crypto industry leaders.

Before this meeting, market rumors said Trump would announce that cryptocurrency sales would be exempt from capital gains tax, but later senior White House officials confirmed that the digital asset summit hosted by Trump would not involve tax issues, but would focus on revoking the restrictive policies of the former Biden administration and listening to industry feedback on regulation.

Before the White House Crypto Summit, David Sacks, the White House artificial intelligence and cryptography director, said in an interview that Bitcoin is of great strategic significance to the United States due to its scarcity and long-term reserve value. When discussing strategic Bitcoin reserves and digital asset reserves, he said that ADA, SOL and XRP were mentioned because they ranked in the top five in market capitalization, which does not mean that the government has a special preference or policy inclination for these assets.

According to Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett, the founder of Strategy submitted a document on digital assets to the Presidential Working Group and the US SEC Crypto Task Force. The document became one of the topics of discussion at the White House Crypto Summit. The cover of the document mainly revolves around digital asset terminology, policy vision and goals. The core goals include:

1. “Establish a sound framework to drive the crypto renaissance.”
2. “Unleash the potential of the crypto industry and promote global economic growth.”
3. “To become the banker of the world by revitalizing capitalism and the property rights system.”

In general, although no major policy progress was announced after the White House Digital Asset Summit, the market is still looking forward to Trump's future crypto policy. After this historic summit, whether the Trump administration's crypto policy can truly promote industry change will still be the focus of the crypto market.