WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump administration is getting ready to host the first-ever White House summit on cryptocurrency Friday with industry leaders. It comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's announcement he plans to establish a strategic crypto reserve that includes more than just Bitcoin. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who will attend the summit, said it would be smarter to stick to Bitcoin, the 'simplest, and clear story as successor to gold.' Similarly, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, a vocal Trump supporter, said, 'I have nothing against XRP, SOL, or ADA but I do not think they are suitable for a Strategic Reserve. Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar and that digital asset is bitcoin.' Another topic certain to come up during the summit is banking. "What happened in the previous administration is, they put a lot of pressure on the banks not to provide basic banking services to crypto companies," said Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad. “I had employees on my own team who couldn’t get home equity lines of credit, who couldn’t get a mortgage, who couldn’t open up a brokerage account.” Shirzad said the summit marks an 'enormously exciting' moment for the crypto industry 'at a point where countries around the world are moving aggressively to become a leader in this space, including China, which more than any other government in the world invests heavily in blockchain technology.’ Trump is all-in on crypto now, but it took him years to get there. During a 2021 interview, he said crypto was 'potentially a disaster waiting to happen.’ Flash forward to his second term in office, one of the first things he did after being sworn in was establish a presidential working group on crypto. He even appointed a crypto czar, tech entrepreneur David Sacks. Shirzad said they're also looking for legal framework for the use of stablecoins. 'These are tokenized dollars that you can move on the blockchain. It’s an activity that has to be regulated. So if I’m an issuer of a dollar token to you, you need to have some confidence that I hold the backing assets behind it,' Shirzad said. Next week, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is expected to review the bipartisan Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 Act, or GENIUS Act, which would create clear guidelines for institutions seeking a license to issue stablecoins.

Crypto industry leaders heading to White House for digital asset summit

The Trump administration held the first-ever White House summit on cryptocurrency on 2025-03-06, gathering industry leaders to discuss strategic reserves, banking services, and stablecoins. The summit aims to establish a regulatory framework for the crypto industry, including stablecoins, and to encourage countries like the US and China to lead in blockchain technology.