Trump’s crypto conversion is complete as he holds White House summit

President once called cryptocurrencies 'a disaster waiting to happen'

US President Donald Trump has often claimed that he has accomplished unprecedented things – and keeping with that theme, his administration has announced the first ever White House Crypto Summit.

The summit, taking place on Friday, will include the participation of crypto and digital asset founders, executives and others from the burgeoning sector.

“The summit will be chaired by the White House AI and crypto Czar David Sacks, and administered by the working group’s Executive Director Bo Hines,” the White House said.

Mr Trump also signed an executive order on Thursday to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

The reserve will be capitalised with Bitcoin owned by the federal government "that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings", Mr Sacks said on X.

"This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime. It is estimated that the US government owns about 200,000 bitcoin; however, there has never been a complete audit ... The US will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the reserve. It will be kept as a store of value," he said.

For Mr Trump, the summit is the culmination of years of evolving thinking on crypto. During a 2021 interview with Fox Business, Mr Trump said that Bitcoin, one of the flagship crypto brands, was a “disaster waiting to happen” and claimed that it hurt the dollar.

But similar to his about-face on TikTok, Mr Trump seems to have changed his mind on crypto.

Shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, federal regulators dismissed lawsuits against crypto firm Coinbase. Reuters

Throughout his presidential campaign, he criticised his predecessor Joe Biden's approach to crypto, which involved investigations into several firms like Coinbase. Many of these probes were dropped shortly after Mr Trump took office in January.

In the 2024 Republican Party platform, taking cues from Mr Trump, the party mentioned crypto in its official issue plank document.

“Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American Crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the platform read. “We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin, and ensure every American has the right to self-custody of their Digital Assets.”

The Trump campaign received a large number of donations from those with an affinity for crypto, and shortly before taking office in January, Mr Trump even launched a launched a memecoin.

In December, Mr Trump's son Eric told attendees at a Bitcoin Mena conference in Abu Dhabi that his father would “fight like hell” to protect crypto from overregulation, and that he projected Bitcoin would hit $1 million in value.

Last week, Mr Trump said the US crypto reserve would have five cryptocurrencies, naming Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Cardano as its potential core holdings.

That move, however, was met with criticism from some, including former White House labour secretary Robert Reich.

“This US crypto reserve could result in a direct wealth transfer of wealth from taxpayers to crypto industry donors and President Trump himself, who recently launched his own 'memecoin' and plans to create a crypto exchange through his media company,” he said on Instagram.

Despite existing for more than a decade, criticism and scepticism still abounds on crypto, which, unlike fiat currencies, lack an overall regulatory apparatus and are mostly decentralised.

Crypto has also created huge spike in the need for electricity.

During a presentation in Abu Dhabi last year on artificial intelligence and the energy industry, Steven Chu, a former energy secretary who served under president Barack Obama, expressed concern about how much electricity crypto mining was consuming.

“Roughly speaking, half the electricity of data centres is used to mine Bitcoin type currency,” he said.

Crypto mining is generally defined as the process by which digital assets are obtained and secured through a blockchain network.

“What is Bitcoin currency used for? Money laundering and evading taxes, so half of the electricity being used for that is not a good thing, and personally I think it should be outlawed, but in any case since it's making a lot of money, there are a lot of forces saying that they don't want to outlaw it,” Mr Chu added.

Those worries about crypto energy consumption have been felt all over the world. Most recently, crypto mining was banned in several locations throughout Russia as a way to preserve energy resources.

Though they're often touted for having ironclad security, crypto has not been without problems.

Just as crypto began to hit a stride in 2014, the popular Mt Grox was hacked, and other technical problems with the exchange resulting in the disappearance of thousands of Bitcoins.

In 2022, FTX, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, collapsed and fallout from fraud sent its founder Sam Bankman-Fried to prison.

According to the FBI, North Korea hacked the Bybit crypto exchange this month, which resulted in the theft of approximately $1.5 billion in virtual assets.

Yet crypto proponents are quick to point out that fiat currencies are also far from perfect, and optimism over the asset's future seems to spring eternal with the return of Mr Trump, who has promised to be the country's “first crypto president”.

“After the previous administration unfairly prosecuted the digital asset space, President Trump’s policy vision represents a new era for digital financial technology,” the White House said in a release. “The administration is committed to providing a clear regulatory framework, enabling innovation and protecting economic liberty.”