White House to Host First-Ever Crypto Summit on Friday

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will host the White House’s first-ever “crypto summit” on Friday, a session expected to be attended by prominent founders, CEOs and investors from the cryptocurrency universe, as well as members of the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets. 

Also possible, at least according to a report from an independent news outlet, is that the president will announce plans for the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised to be America’s “first crypto president” and during his first week in office he followed through by signing an executive order in which he declared “the policy of my administration [is] to support the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy.”

Friday’s session, which is being chaired by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and administered by the Working Group’s Executive Director Bo Hines, is intended to advance the president’s vision for “a new era for digital financial technology.”

In announcing the summit, the White House said it is “committed to providing a clear regulatory framework, enabling innovation and protecting economic liberty.”

In addition to the president, Sacks and Hines, the government will also be represented at the summit by Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins.

Among those from the crypto industry who are expected to attend are Brad Garlinghouse, of Ripple; Michael Saylor, of MicroStrategy; Paolo Ardoino, of Tether; Kyle Samani, of Multicoin Capital; Cathie Wood, of Ark; Charles Hoskinson, of Cardano Foundation; Anatoly Yakovenko, of the Solana Foundation; Vitalik Buterin, of the Ethereum Foundation; Marc Andreessen, of Andreessen Horowitz a16z; Brian Armstrong, of Coinbase; and Changpeng Zhao, of Binance.

As for the creation of the strategic bitcoin reserve, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly tipped the development during an interview earlier this week with independent news outlet The Pavlovic Today.

During the interview, the publication says, Lutnick stated that the president “definitely thinks there’s a bitcoin strategic reserve” and would unveil plans for it during the White House’s inaugural crypto summit on Friday.

On Sunday, Trump himself said he is directing the digital assets working group to move forward with creating a crypto reserve similar to already existing U.S. reserves of oil and gold.

“A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He also noted that he expects payments-focused XRP, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA tokens to be a part of a digital assets reserve that is expected to have bitcoin and ether at its core.

“I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World. We are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he declared.

In January, Trump launched his own crypto meme coin, raising concerns in some quarters about his having such a close relationship with a specific financial sector. 

Trump’s official “meme coin,” known as $TRUMP, features an image of the president holding up his fist with the words, “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” — a phrase he has dubbed “a battle cry” after surviving an assassination attempt in July 2024. 

First Lady Melania Trump also launched a meme coin, $MELANIA, featuring a black-and-white photo of Melania smiling with her hands clasped in front of her face.

In related news, it has been announced that Vice President JD Vance is expected to be a keynote speaker at next month’s a16z American Dynamism Summit in Washington, D.C.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue