President Donald Trump’s administration may be pivoting away from the idea of a formal crypto council in favor of a series of informal summits involving a rotating bench of crypto industry leaders, Unchained Crypto reported on Feb. 13.
According to three sources familiar with the administration’s decision-making process, these summits would focus on specific policy issues, potentially covering banking, payments, data centers, and Bitcoin (BTC) mining.
While the number and timing of these summits remain unclear, two sources confirmed that trade associations have been actively providing input on the structure and agenda of these discussions.
A tribal market
The move is seen as a strategic effort to navigate internal divisions within the crypto industry, which has been fragmented along multiple ideological and business lines.
Conflicts within the industry have surfaced between centralized and decentralized projects, Bitcoin maximalists and altcoin executives, advocates of integrating crypto with traditional finance, and individual executives vying for influence.
The administration is potentially opting for informal summits to create a more flexible and less contentious forum for discussions.
Industry reactions to the potential shift from a formal council to summits have been mixed. One source framed the idea as a pragmatic approach that would allow subject-matter experts to weigh in on relevant issues, adding:
“Do you think it would make sense to talk to exchanges about exchange issues and miners about mining issues and wallet providers about self custody, etc?”
Others were more skeptical, suggesting that the summits could be a mechanism to sidestep conflicts rather than a platform for meaningful policy development. One source went as far as to allege that Trump’s interest in summits was less about shaping policy and more about gathering information for personal financial gain.
Trump’s recent involvement in creating a memecoin and his family’s participation in the DeFi project World Liberty Financial has led some industry leaders to question his motivations.
The crypto council
Trump first hinted about a crypto council during his campaign, saying that the group would work with regulators to create a regulatory framework for crypto and streamline enforcement actions. He also said at the time that crypto industry leaders would be involved in the effort.
Reports suggested that executives from Coinbase, Paradigm, a16z, Ripple, Kraken, and Circle sought a seat on the council.
The idea was formally introduced through an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 23 called the “Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.”
In addition to the expected regulatory effort, the crypto council would also be responsible for assessing and potentially establishing a digital asset stockpile focused on Bitcoin. David Sacks, named the “White House AI & Crypto Czar,” was designated the council’s leader.
As of press time, the Trump administration has not issued an official statement on the matter and has yet to respond to requests for comment.
