Analysis of the impact of the first White House Cryptocurrency Summit: What changes have occurred in the market more than a month?

1. Preface: The convening and aftermath of the first White House Crypto

Summit

On March 7, 2025, the White House held its first "cryptocurrency summit" in history. Before the summit, the market generally expects that the Trump administration will send major positive signals, such as announcing additional procurement of Bitcoin, including more mainstream currencies in the "national crypto reserves", or introducing clearer regulatory policies to continuously push up market heat and further boost the market.

Affected by this expectation, a few days before the summit, Bitcoin soared from US$80,000 to nearly US$95,000, and other mainstream currencies (including ETH, XRP , SOL , ADA) also generally rose by 5% to 25%.

However, after the summit was officially held, no large-scale currency purchase plans or substantive new policies were announced, and only reiterated the existing position of "supporting industries and moderate supervision". As market expectations failed, there was a significant pullback after the summit. Bitcoin fell about 3% to 5% the day after the summit, and other mainstream currencies also generally fell 5% to 10%.

Despite this, compared with the overall suppression of the previous government, the significant relaxation of the current policy and regulatory environment still makes the market relatively optimistic about the clarification of medium and long-term regulations and innovation space. Some investors are still cautiously optimistic about the future policy evolution of the United States in the crypto field.

To deeply understand this summit and its subsequent market fluctuations, we also need to review the regulatory path and policy evolution of the US government in the field of crypto in recent years. This article will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the market trends before and after this summit, outline key policy signals, and look forward to the far-reaching impact of this summit on the future from an industry perspective.

2. Historical background: The change in the US government's attitude

towards cryptocurrency

1. Early stage: A cautious attitude mainly focused on supervision and risk prevention

• After the 2017 ICO bubble, US regulators (such as the SEC, CFTC, etc.) focused on combating fraud, money laundering and preventing illegal capital flows, strengthened relevant law enforcement, and required cryptocurrency exchanges to comply with the "Anti-money laundering/Customer Identity Authentication" (AML/KYC) regulations.

• At that time, the U.S. government relied primarily on existing legal frameworks (such as the Securities Act) to regulate cryptocurrencies and did not introduce special federal legislation or regulatory sandboxes.

• Trump's first term and Biden period: swaying attitudes and gradually severe law enforcement

  • Trump's first term (2017–2020): Overall skepticism about cryptocurrencies. In 2019, Trump publicly stated on social media that he "don't like Bitcoin" and other crypto assets, believing that they would weaken the dollar's status. During this period, the U.S. government strengthened law enforcement on ICO fraud cases and proposed to strengthen supervision of self-entrusted wallets by the end of 2020.
  • Biden Administration (2021–2024): Although the Biden administration issued an executive order for digital assets in 2022, requiring federal agencies to coordinate and study related issues of cryptocurrency, subsequent law enforcement efforts have been strengthened. The SEC sued many large crypto companies including Ripple and Coinbase, and the market's concerns about legal risks have intensified, which has curbed the entry of institutional investors to some extent.

• After the 2024 election: Trump's return and a sharp change in "crypto-friendly" policy

  • In January 2025, Trump took office again and quickly signed executive order 14178, announcing that the United States would become the "global cryptocurrency capital." He revoked many Biden-era regulatory policies, stopped some lawsuits against cryptocurrency exchanges, and appointed former PayPal COO and investor David Sacks as the "head of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency affairs."
  • In late February 2025, Trump also signed an executive order to establish a "strategic Bitcoin reserve", but this move was limited to retaining about 200,000 Bitcoins previously confiscated by the government and did not intend to purchase additional purchases. Although this move conveyed a strong signal to the market that "the US government holds Bitcoin", it also made the expectation that "the United States will purchase a large number of cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH" that was generally expected by the market to fail.

3. Market expectations and popularity before the summit

Before the summit was officially held (March 7), the Trump administration hinted through social media at the end of February that it might include BTC, ETH , XRP , SOL, ADA and other cryptocurrencies in the "new US cryptocurrency strategic reserve."

Affected by this, the market's expectations that "the Trump administration may announce major positive news" have rapidly heated up . Bitcoin rose from $84,000 to nearly $95,000, and several currencies mentioned by Trump (BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, ADA) also saw significant increases from the end of February to early March. The following table counts the price trends of these mainstream crypto assets from February 28 to before the start of the summit (March 3):

Judging from the data, the market originally expected that the US government would announce greater positive policies at the summit, such as using the federal budget to formally purchase Bitcoin or other mainstream coins, thereby further pushing up market prices in the short term.

Driven by this expectation, market liquidity has risen significantly, and the number of open contracts (OIs) of trading volume and derivatives such as futures and options have also grown rapidly during the same period. Overall market sentiment has become optimistic, and investors' imagination of "government endorsement" has been rapidly amplified.

However, the actual content of the executive order does not include any new procurement plans, and only stated that "the current Bitcoin assets held by the federal government will not be sold." This means that there is limited space for new buying in the short term, which will eventually become one of the key reasons for the market pullback after the summit.

4. Summit Live: The policy direction is clear, but the details are

lacking

On March 7, the White House officially held the first "Cryptocurrency Summit", attracting more than 20 important figures in the US crypto industry. Although the meeting was previously advertised as "setting the tone for the U.S. crypto-regulatory policy in the next four years", it was ultimately not announced a clear new policy or large-scale coin purchase plan:

1. Trump only attended briefly:

• Trump himself only attended for about 30 minutes at the opening of the summit and told the participating crypto entrepreneurs during the live broadcast that “the last administration’s war on cryptocurrencies has ended” and stressed that the government will provide regulatory certainty for the crypto market at the legislative level.

• The subsequent closed-door discussion was chaired by officials including David Sacks, the White House director of encryption and artificial intelligence affairs, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Several participants (such as former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, Paradigm partner Matt Huang, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev) made some suggestions, including allowing the government to buy large quantities of Bitcoin, tokenizing traditional securities assets, and reexamining criminal charges against Tornado Cash developers, but these suggestions did not immediately receive any commitment or guarantee.

• "Friendly but lightly touch" regulatory tone:

  • Trump reiterated at the meeting that he would promote the development of the crypto industry through "friendly legislation and light-touching regulation."
  • Although the Treasury and SEC representatives did not explicitly commit to revoke more litigation cases, they said that industry needs will be prioritized in the future.
  • The summit did not issue any new executive orders or immediate bills, indicating that the government is still in the stage of "collecting industry opinions and discussing regulatory details."

• Interpretation of mainstream media:

  • Mainstream financial media (such as CNBC, Bloomberg, etc.) focus more on Trump's willingness to pass Congress legislation to "provide regulatory certainty for the crypto market", believing that compared with the previous situation of gray areas and litigation intensive situations, there has been significant improvement.

Overall, the summit "set the general direction and lacks specific details", and its short-term impact on the market is more of the loss brought about by "expectations are falsified" rather than subversive benefits.

5. Analysis of market trends and technical aspects after the summit

After the summit, the prices of Bitcoin and most mainstream coins showed a wave of correction. The main reason is that the market has quickly digested the "difference between expectations and reality", which has led to a surge of short-term selling pressure , and many investors choose to sell or wait and see for the time being.

The following table counts the price trends of several major cryptocurrencies from the end of the summit (March 7) to late March (March 24):

Overall, the market atmosphere has returned to rationality from the optimistic expectations of "big policies" and has begun to correct the "expectations are too high".

After losing expectations of "government purchase of coins", Bitcoin's price fell in the short term, but it has not yet broken down; Ethereum and XRP also followed the trend of the overall market, and most other mainstream coins are in a state of "end of short-term growth, entering a fluctuation or pullback". In the derivatives market, capital rates have turned neutral or slightly negative, and the number of open contracts has also declined, reflecting the current market's long leverage willingness to decline and short-term speculation has weakened. Solana, due to the listing of CME futures and ETFs in mid-March, showed a slight increase against the trend and showed a certain independent market .

Although the overall short-term decline has occurred, against the backdrop of a significant easing of medium- and long-term regulatory risks, many institutions and long-term investors are still optimistic that the United States may introduce more specific legislation or guidelines in the future. Therefore, after a period of cooling-off, if the government announces specific policy benefits in the future, there is still a chance to regain buying momentum.

6. Conclusion: The crypto market fluctuates in the short term and is

still optimistic about long-term potential

Regulation and legislation trends

Although the first White House Cryptocurrency Summit did not introduce major new policies and failed to bring immediate legislative action, the US government clearly stated that it would support the direction of "light-touch regulation to encourage industry development." From a policy perspective, the United States may more actively formulate bills or regulatory mechanisms in the future, so that the market will no longer be in the previous "vague or uncertain" state. If the bill can be implemented smoothly in the future, large financial institutions or technology companies will be encouraged to invest.

Market sentiment and institutional participation

Compared with the strong suppression of the previous government, the risks of regulations today are relatively reduced. Many institutional investors (including investment banks, asset management companies, sovereign funds, etc.) have become more inclusive about crypto assets, which may expand their digital asset business.

In the long run, "national reserves" and "government open attitude" are often important driving forces for the bull market cycle. Even if there is no large-scale cash buying this time, the market still expects more government cooperation projects or infrastructure investment in the future.

Long-term prospect

There is a gap between market expectations and actual results in the short term, resulting in a price falling from a high level. Technical and derivatives data show that trading sentiment has entered a wait-and-see period, and investors are waiting for clearer policy details or macro-oriented improvements.

In the medium and long term, as long as the direction of "the United States officially recognizes that crypto assets have legal status and is willing to formulate clear regulatory rules" remains unchanged, institutional funds and developer ecosystems are expected to continue to flow in. When the macroeconomic and regulatory variables gradually become clear, the market may usher in a new wave of growth momentum. The current fluctuations are more about digesting "overexpectations in the early stage" rather than reversal of the trend. All parties are paying attention to whether the White House can formalize the opinions of the summit and implement them into the new regulatory system, which will become one of the key driving forces for subsequent market development.

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