Trump to speak at Digital Asset Summit: Report

United States President Donald Trump will reportedly speak at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 20, Blockworks said. 

His speech will mark the first time a sitting US president has ever spoken at a cryptocurrency conference, Blockworks said in a March 19 announcement.

Trump’s presence at the event underscores his embrace of an industry that, under former US president Joe Biden, was the target of more than 100 enforcement actions by federal regulators.

“When we started Blockworks we could barely get someone from a bank to attend an event,” Jason Yanowitz, one of Blockworks co-founders, said in a March 19 post on the X platform.

“Now we have a sitting US President addressing […] 2,500 institutional participants. It is incredible how far this industry has come,” Yanowitz said.

Blockworks reportedly confirmed Trump will address attendees via a video recording at 10:40 am, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett said in an X post.

Related: SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse says

Changing political fortunes

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he promised to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and hinted at plans to form a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. 

Since starting his presidential term on Jan. 20, Trump has signed executive orders instructing regulatory bodies to accommodate digital assets, forming a White House crypto advisory team, and creating a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. 

He has also nominated pro-industry leadership to key regulatory posts, including at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Treasury Department. 

Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, spoke at the Digital Asset Summit earlier this week. 

On March 19, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, announced the SEC was dropping its years-long enforcement action against the blockchain developer while at the Summit. 

Since Trump took office, the agency has also dropped charges against other crypto firms — including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap — for allegedly violating securities laws. 

Blockworks did not specify the topics Trump planned to cover during his speech, which it said would take place Thursday morning. 

Representatives of the White House and Hines did not immediately reply to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. 

Crypto industry executives told Cointelegraph in March they are hoping Trump will provide more detailed regulatory clarity on topics such as stablecoin regulation and taxes. 

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom