Trump’s Crypto Summit Left More Questions Than Answers

The long-awaited White House Crypto Summit left a bittersweet impression, puzzling some as it turned out to be anything but crypto.

On Friday, March 7, the White House hosted its first-ever Crypto Summit, where U.S. President Donald Trump met face-to-face with top industry executives to discuss the future of crypto and blockchain in the United States.

Hosted by Trump’s crypto czar and venture capitalist David Sacks, the event was expected to signal a major shift in the federal government’s stance on cryptocurrency.

In reality, however, it seemed to be more of a mix of promoting a FIFA token, praising Trump’s willingness to embrace crypto, and not much else — at least based on what the White House allowed the media to see during the opening remarks.

While it’s unclear what was discussed behind closed doors, industry figures, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, and the Winklevoss twins, appeared to leave with a renewed sense of optimism about Washington’s direction.

FIFA (???) coin

The summit’s opening, as mentioned earlier, had little to do with crypto, as Trump, for reasons unknown, handed the first speech slot to his longtime friend Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA. Infantino showed off a new trophy shaped like an armillary sphere, kind of like the one in Game of Thrones’ opening credits, adding that it “represents the past but it’s also projected to the future.”

And if a soccer-related trophy at a crypto summit wasn’t strange enough, Infantino then went on to schill the so-called FIFA coin.

“The soccer economy in the world is worth around 170 billion a year. Thirty percent of that, Mr. President, is in Europe. So imagine the potential that there is around the world, only at a sovereign EU level. And so, FIFA is very, very interested, under my presidency, to develop a coin to do it from here, from America, and to conquer the five billion soccer fans in the world.”

Gianni Infantino

No one really knows who invited Infantino, but the way Trump welcomed him made it seem like his own idea. Before the event, Trump had met with Infantino to set up a task force for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. “It could be quite a coin, actually,” Trump added, commenting on Infantino’s crypto teaser.

High-IQ people

Once the sports detour ended, Trump seized the moment to echo the popular crypto mantra “never sell your Bitcoin”, trying to align with industry sentiment. However, his follow-up — “I don’t know if that’s right or not. Who the hell knows?” — was like a splash of cold water for crypto executives, making it feel more like a rhetorical move to please the crowd than a genuine belief, as he seemed to say what sounded right without truly embracing the idea.

The rest of the 20-minute, media-accessible portion of the summit was devoted to a single theme: thanking Trump for his willingness to take an interest in cryptocurrency.

The gratitude tour began with David Sacks, seated to Trump’s left, who said, “we’re here because of your love of innovators — or, as you might say, high-IQ people.” After Sacks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer followed with their own remarks.

Once the high-profile but largely non-crypto figures finished, it was finally time for the crypto industry executives to express their appreciation for the summit.

When Sacks opened the floor for comments, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, sitting just two seats from Trump, indicated he wanted to speak but was completely ignored. Instead, Sacks directed the conversation to one of the Winklevoss twins — without remembering which one — who joked that a year ago, he thought he was “more likely to end up in jail than in the White House.”

When the Winklevoss twins finished, Trump asked again if anyone wanted to speak. Armstrong raised his hand once more, only to be ignored again as Trump turned to hear from Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov instead.

Industry reaction

Despite the positive sentiment among executives, the broader crypto community was left uncertain, to say the least.

With no transparency about what was discussed behind closed doors, the White House Crypto Summit seemingly failed to meet the high expectations of retail investors. U.S. President Donald Trump’s involvement didn’t spark a market rally, leaving many frustrated, as crypto.news previously reported.

A Bybit analytics report produced with Block Scholes also noted that while some cryptocurrency spot prices rose after Trump’s announcement of a “crypto strategic reserve,” funding rates remained stable and didn’t reach extreme levels, signalling that the market “needs a stronger boost than Trump’s crypto strategic reserve.”