With many crypto industry leaders and US government officials expected to gather at the White House in a matter of minutes, some are speculating that the event will explore regulatory clarity.
On March 7, US President Donald Trump is expected to address an audience of crypto company CEOs and founders to discuss regulatory policies, stablecoins and a proposed plan to establish a strategic crypto reserve in government. A senior White House official said prior to the event that the summit would not focus on taxes but rather “rolling back” policies put in place by the previous administration.
“While we’ll need to wait and see what concrete goals emerge from the summit, there’s optimism that it will continue building a regulatory framework that gives the US crypto industry what it desperately needed: clarity without strangulation,” Les Borsai, co-founder of Wave Digital Assets, told Cointelegraph.
“After years of watching innovation flee to friendlier jurisdictions overseas, this summit represents the first coordinated effort to reverse that talent drain and create both an immediate path to regulatory certainty and a long-term vision for blockchain’s role in America’s financial architecture,” Borsai added.
Trump announced the summit less than seven days ago. Executives from major crypto firms, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, have confirmed that they will be attending. Many are speculating that Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who posted on social media that he was in Washington, DC on March 6, could also visit the White House.
Conflicts of interest with crypto investments?
Having company executives meet with a US president is not necessarily a rare event. However, many lawmakers have criticized Trump for potential conflicts of interest following the launch of his own memecoin on Jan. 17. Some in the crypto space have suggested that as the TRUMP coin’s team controls 80% of the total supply, the US president could still rug pull investors.
“[…] Trump has leaned into using crypto platforms to personally enrich himself,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. “These companies — many of whom are present at today’s White House event — appear to have successfully purchased the influence that they sought. That fact should deeply alarm every American, no matter how they feel about crypto.”
Companies like Ripple and Coinbase contributed millions of dollars to a political action committee that may have helped many of Trump’s Republican colleagues get elected in 2024. The US Securities and Exchange Commission under the current administration has also dropped investigations and enforcement actions against many firms represented in the White House on March 7, including Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken and Robinhood.
Borsai pushed back against Trump’s conflicts of interest, claiming the US president’s promotion of crypto “isn’t creating the market but rather acknowledging what already exists.”
Related: Trump’s World Liberty bought $20M worth of crypto ahead of March 7 summit
Other industry leaders attending the event, including Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, suggested that the summit could focus on the US leadership in the digital asset space. In comments to Cointelegraph, Jennifer Schulp, a director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute who has also testified at congressional hearings on crypto, warned against exploring any regulatory framework that “pick[s] winners and losers, which ultimately undermines consumer choice and innovation.”
The summit will also follow Trump’s signing an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and a “Digital Asset Stockpile” using crypto seized in federal criminal cases. A White House official acknowledged that the executive order was not a “permanent law,” expressing hope lawmakers in Congress could move forward with establishing a crypto reserve.
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