“Last year, I promised to make America the Bitcoin superpower of the world and crypto capital of the planet, and taking historic action to deliver on that promise,” Trump said.

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Several industry leaders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, attended the summit, which was led by White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks.

The crypto industry enthusiastically embraced Trump’s 2024 campaign as Trump vowed to turn the United States into the crypto capital. Trump sought to appeal to young male voters through his embrace of crypto in his battle against former Vice President Kamala Harris, who failed to propel enough women voters to back her campaign.

In January, after male and young voters propelled him to victory, Trump launched a cryptocurrency meme coin known as $TRUMP, and first lady Melania Trump launched her own coin, $MELANIA.

More than 1 in 5 Americans somehow own crypto, according to the report “Global State of Crypto 2024.” The report said the U.S. had the biggest gender gap among the nations surveyed with only 28% of female cryptocurrency holders compared to 72% of male holders.

An October 2024 Pew Research Survey revealed that 42% of men ages 18 to 29 said they had invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency, compared to 17% of women in the same age range. Among men ages 30 to 49, 36% of men had invested, traded, or used crypto, compared to 15% of women in this age group.

During Friday’s gathering, Trump didn’t shy from politics.

Trump attacked former President Joe Biden’s administration for selling off bitcoin and for its alleged “war on crypto.”

“Unfortunately, in recent years, the U.S. government has foolishly sold tens of thousands of additional Bitcoin that were worth billions and billions of dollars had they not sold them,” Trump said.

“They strong-armed banks into closing the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking some money transfers to and from exchanges, and they weaponized government against the entire industry,” Trump said. “But I know that feeling also maybe better than you do. All of that will soon be over and we are ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

In a light-hearted moment, Trump appeared to quell some fears the American public may have about crypto.

“From this day on, America will follow the rule that every Bitcoin knows very well: never sell your Bitcoin. That’s a little phrase that they have,” Trump said. “I don’t know if that’s right or not. Who the hell knows?”

“I also want to express my strong support for the efforts of lawmakers in Congress as they work on bills to provide regulatory certainty for dollar-backed stablecoins and the digital assets market,” he said. “I hope lawmakers will send that legislation to my desk before August recess if they can.”

The president elaborated that the Treasury and Commerce departments would explore new pathways to accumulate additional bitcoin holdings for the reserve, with the caveat that taxpayers would not foot the bill.

Sacks, the crypto czar, was among a handful of administration leaders at the summit, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, one of the only women at the event among a sea of men.

“We’re going to position the United States as a leader among nations in the digital asset strategy. It’s important for the United States to recognize this fact and get ahead of the other nations in the digital age,” said Bessent.

“This is truly a historic day. And as a crypto founder, I couldn’t be more proud to be part of your administration,” Loeffler added. “And under your administration, we are truly going to enter into the golden age. And I’ll just say, as the administrator of the SBA, small business is a tremendous network that crypto can be deployed against, and so the SBA is open to crypto.”

Before the summit, Sacks told reporters, “The objective of the summit today is taking feedback and advice from the industry. We promised to do that during the campaign.”