US Presidential Crypto Summit Disappoints Investors

The inaugural crypto summit at the White House, aimed at reshaping the US government’s approach to the digital asset industry, failed to deliver the anticipated positive impact on the market. Most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization responded with a decline.

Promises Fall Short

On March 7, during the summit, Donald Trump declared that the “war” of the previous administration on digital assets was over, emphasizing his intention to make the US the “crypto capital of the world.”

A day earlier, the president signed an order to establish a bitcoin reserve, which involves storing assets confiscated by the Treasury in criminal and civil cases. Selling coins from the fund is prohibited.

“This is a digital Fort Knox for digital gold within the US Treasury,” Trump described the initiative while opening the event.

A separate storage for altcoins will be created, where confiscated assets will also be placed. They can only be sold on the market in exceptional cases if deemed necessary by the Treasury. Direct asset purchases are not planned.

The president condemned the sale of bitcoins by Joe Biden’s administration and promised it would not happen again.

“From this day forward, the US will follow the well-known rule among bitcoiners — never sell your bitcoins,” Trump stated, adding that he himself is unsure about the correctness of such an approach.

He noted that government agencies will “explore opportunities to acquire additional BTC for the reserve” provided that taxpayer money is not spent on it.

Trump also promised to end Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — an initiative to restrict crypto businesses’ access to traditional banking:

“Regulators forced banks to close accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking some money transfers. […] All this will soon end, we are ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

By August 2025, the president hopes to sign legislation for dollar stablecoins.

“[Lawmakers] are working very hard on this. It is a colossal opportunity for economic growth and innovation in our financial sector, and it will truly make a big difference,” he stated.

Market Disappointment

The lack of specifics among the government’s announced plans, especially regarding the national cryptocurrency reserve, negatively impacted many assets.

In the past 24 hours, the total market capitalization has decreased by 5% to $2.92 trillion.

Bitcoin fell by 3.5%. At the time of writing, the price is around $85,900 with a capitalization of $1.71 trillion.

The price of Ethereum dropped by 3% to $2100 with a capitalization of $257 billion.

Leading contenders for inclusion in the US national crypto reserve among altcoins — XRP, SOL, and ADA — fell by 8.4%, 4.2%, and 9.2% respectively.

Positive Outlooks

Despite the summit’s short-term negative effect, experts believe the new governmental approach will ultimately have a positive impact on the crypto industry.

“Prioritizing bitcoin as a reserve asset in the US not only legitimizes its status as ‘digital gold’ but also sets a precedent that could accelerate regulatory framework development and stimulate institutional adoption worldwide,” noted First Digital CEO Vincent Chok in a comment to CoinDesk.

In his view, such “trust” in cryptocurrencies by the federal government could inspire institutions to transition to blockchain, leading to an influx of liquidity into DeFi and increased interest in other digital assets like stablecoins.

Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan believes that the implementation of a national digital asset reserve reduces the likelihood of a bitcoin ban by the government and makes the cryptocurrency more legitimate in the eyes of investors and regulators.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is confident that this “will give new impetus to the legalization of digital gold,” and G20 member countries will follow the US example.

Back in March, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey reported that China is actively working on creating its own strategic bitcoin reserve.