Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump hosted a White House Digital Assets Summit on Friday afternoon, marking the first time such a meeting had ever taken place in the Executive Mansion.
“Welcome to the first-ever White House Digital Assets Summit,” the president said. “I know that many of you have been fighting for years for this, and it’s an honor to be with you at the White House.”
The meeting was held in the State Dining Room, and included many leaders in the digital asset industry, including White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
This meeting came just one day after the president signed an executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile.
President Trump said the federal government was currently among the largest holders of Bitcoin, with as many as 200,000 obtained “via civil law” and “enforcing actions.”
He also noted that the U.S. government, mostly under the leadership of Biden, had “foolishly sold tens of thousands of additional Bitcoins that were worth billions and billions.”
Trump said that moving forward, the U.S. government would abide by one rule: “Never sell your Bitcoin.”
The president explained that federal agencies will conduct an inventory of current crypto and digital assets to determine how they can be transferred to the United States Treasury.
He also committed to ending the persecution against the digital assets world, which suffered immensely under the Biden administration.
“All of that will soon be over, and we are ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” Trump said.
This drew tremendous applause from summit attendees. Operation Chokepoint 2.0 was a Biden-era effort to persecute and debank the digital asset world.
President Trump remained firm that backing digital assets and Bitcoin presented a “tremendous opportunity for growth and innovation in our financial sector” and described the new world of digital finances as a type of pioneering.
David Sacks thanked Trump for his support. “We really appreciate the fact that you understand legal fairness and that you are always going to fight for the right thing,” he stated.
Secretary Bessent also added that the United States would soon be positioned as a “leader among nations” in the digital assets sphere. He explained how America would use the authority of the newly created reserve and stockpile to “augment the asset side of the United States balance sheet.”
He continued, “President trump is creating assets for the American people while most past presidents have created debt…A large part of this asset program can be in digital assets.”
Bessent emphasized the use of “stable coins” to accomplish the administration’s goals – coins that are essentially linked to another type of asset, such as gold.
Lastly, Secretary Lutnick offered his comments on the exciting, innovative summit.
“[Trump’s] going to use technology to drive America forward,” he commented.