The White House held its first-ever “crypto summit” on Friday, where several industry leaders met to discuss the Trump administration’s steps towards crypto regulatory clarity. Among the attendees was Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who said he was “pleased to see the incredible support from this administration.”
In an X post late Friday, the CEO coined the time President Trump and Crypto Czar David Sacks have spent discussing regulatory frameworks for digital currencies as “weeks that feel like months.”
Ripple CEO: We need a level playing field
Garlinghouse, an advocate against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s legal actions against Ripple under the previous administration, mentioned the importance of entities in the industry collaborating and to stop pitting “one coin versus another.”
“We will, as we’ve always done, continue to champion the need for a level playing field,” he stated. “It was great to hear others in the room echo this as well! The industry must come together to move much-needed legislation forward in the US.“
Garlinghouse concluded his message by thanking President Trump, Crypto Czar David Sacks, White House’s Executive Director of the Council of Advisers on Digital Assets Bo Hines, and CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham for hosting a “truly historic summit.”
Praise for Trump’s leadership in crypto
After the summit, industry leaders and administration officials showed their support for Trump’s friendly approach to digital assets. In his post-summit press conference speech, David Sacks said it was an honor to work for a president who “works every day to get so much done for the American people.”
“Your love of innovators and high IQ people is why we’re here,” Sacks remarked. “You love legal fairness and nobody knows what lawfare feels like better than you do. You will fight and never back down, even in the face of an assassin’s bullet. It’s an inspiration to everyone in this room.”
Sacks, who is leading efforts of the current administration’s crypto policy, described Trump’s White House as operating “at tech speed” and credited the president with pushing forward with his promises for the digital asset industry.
President Trump formalized his commitment through an executive order signed on Thursday, instructing the Treasury and Commerce Departments to come up with budget-neutral strategies for accumulating Bitcoin and other digital assets into a national strategic reserve, without the involvement of taxpayers.
“We don’t want any cost to the taxpayers,” Trump reckoned.
US President’s message to the crypto community
“From this day on, America will follow the rule that every Bitcoin owner knows very well: never sell your Bitcoin,” asserted Trump, repeating the words he had said to the American people back in July 2024, at the Nashville Bitcoin conference.
Pausing for effect, he added, “I don’t know if that’s right or not. Who the hell knows, right? Who knows? But so far, it’s been right, and well, let’s keep it that way.”
Industry leaders attending the event welcomed the administration’s policies, with many executives bashing the Biden administration’s regulatory crackdowns, arguing that they stifled innovation and targeted digital currency businesses unfairly.
“What everyone really needs to have at this point is clarity on what the level of scrutiny and intensity of regulation will be, who the key regulators will be,” Vanderbilt University law professor Yesha Yadav told Reuters.
Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, took to social media to support the administration’s cause. “Yesterday was history in the making,” he wrote. “The first crypto President. The first crypto summit at the White House. We are winning bigly and we are going to keep on winning until we get tired of winning—which will be never!”
Still, the Washington crypto meeting did not have much impact on Bitcoin’s price as expected. The largest coin by market cap is changing hands at $86,247, down 2% in the last day, per CoinGecko data.
