The long-awaited cryptocurrency summit, President Donald Trump’s, finally took place on Friday, with Bitcoin still trading below $83,000, and the expectations for the summit may have been greater than the outcome.
Nevertheless, to help you, to prevent anything from being lost in translation, we have put together the highlights of Trump’s speech in the form of quotes.
The World Cup is important
In a surprise appearance, FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced a potential FIFA-supported digital currency at the cryptocurrency summit in the White House. This is what Trump said:
“They just spoke in the Oval Office. I think it was a beautiful – it’s a trophy. It’s a big deal. The World Cup is the biggest sporting event, and Gianni Infantino has been my friend for a long time.”
After Infantino introduced the coin, Trump said, “Under my presidency, FIFA is very, very interested in developing a coin that conquers the 5 billion football fans around the world, starting from here, from the United States, from the United States.” Trump replied, “In the end, the coin could be much bigger than FIFA. In the end, it could be a coin.”
The Bitcoin superpower of the world and the crypto capital of the earth
Trump started things off at the White House Digital Assets Summit, describing the event as “something that many of you have been fighting for for years, and it’s an honor to be with you in the White House.”
He then proceeded to thank White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, CFTC Chairman Caroline Pierce, Caroline Pham, the House Majority Committee, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Representatives Bryan Steil, Brian Mast, and Mark Rubio, and Digital Assets Council members Bo Hinines.
Trump then reflected on his promises and how he has worked to fulfill the goals of the crypto community:
“Last year, I promised to make the United States the Bitcoin superpower of the world and the crypto capital of the earth. As you know, we are taking historic action to fulfill that promise.”
Bitcoin reserves are a big deal
The reaction to Trump’s crypto reserves was mixed last week, causing a stir in Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Cardano, and Bitcoin.
By the end of the week, Trump announced the Bitcoin reserves, but once again disappointed the industry.
Nevertheless, Trump emphasized that the executive order was a success:
“Yesterday, I signed an executive order formally creating our strategic Bitcoin reserves. It will be a virtual Fort Knox, housing digital gold for the U.S. Treasury. It’s a big deal.”
“As you know, the federal government is already one of the largest holders of Bitcoin. In fact, one of the largest in the world, with holdings of 200,000 Bitcoin through civil forfeiture and various other forms of law, including law enforcement actions. These existing holdings will form the basis of the new reserves.”
“From today on, the U.S. will follow the rules that every Bitcoin is very familiar with. Never sell your Bitcoin. That’s their little phrase. I don’t know if that’s right.”
Ending the crypto war better than you
Former President Joe Biden and former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler came under scrutiny for their positive stance on the cryptocurrency industry. Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC has taken approximately 100 enforcement actions in the past four years.
In response, Trump vowed to end the aggression against cryptocurrency:
“My administration is also working to put an end to the federal bureaucratic war on cryptocurrency, which was really crazy prior to Biden, until the election happened. About five months ago, he became a loyal fan because he heard how many people liked it, how many people loved it, and the passion and respect for it. But I guess people don’t really know the scope of him.”
“Under the Biden administration, the regulatory agencies, the strong banking – I mean, they really did – their strong banking put an end to cryptocurrency businesses and entrepreneurs’ accounts, effectively blocking some currencies from back and forth exchanges, and they weaponized the government against the entire industry.”
“All of that will be coming to an end very soon, and we will end the operation of Chokepoint 2.0.”
Support for stablecoin legislation and being pioneers
Congress members were praised by Trump, and he emphasized their efforts in building a secure regulatory environment for stablecoins:
“I want to express strong support for the efforts of the lawmakers in Congress as they work to provide regulatory certainty for the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins and the digital asset markets. They’ve been working very hard on this.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity for our financial sector’s economic growth and innovation, and we have a long way to go indeed. I think it’s going to be a tremendous opportunity – we feel like pioneers in a way, and it’s a great growth approach. Things are very solid. We hope to keep it that way. We have a long way to go.”
“I hope to have this legislation on my desk before the August recess. They’ve been very cooperative with you, you know, many of whom you know, with many of you.”
Elsewhere
Jesse Zeng got into the cryptocurrency industry as an intern at Gemini while studying finance at SMU. She then went on to work at Chainlink, where she transitioned from a business development role to a focus on ecosystem building.
After gaining institutional experience at Fireblocks, she joined Meth as the leader of ecosystem growth, supported by Mantle’s liquid staking platform.
Previous episodes of The Recap can be found on Podpage, featuring guests such as Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX), Jason Choi (The Blockcrunch), Lausanha Pushparajah (Reserve), Mark Reitman (Ether), Peter Dao (Moongate), Luca Prosperi (m^0), Charles Hoskinson (Cardano), Aneirin Flynn (FailSafe), and Yat Siu (Animoca Brands) in our latest show.
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