The White House's First Crypto Assets Summit and Its Impact: Market Reactions and Future Outlook

Introduction

On March 7, 2025, the White House hosted the historic first cryptocurrency summit. Prior to the meeting, the market widely anticipated that the government would release significant positive news, such as announcing an increase in Bitcoin purchases or incorporating more mainstream Crypto Assets into national reserves. This expectation drove the price of Bitcoin to soar from $80,000 to nearly $95,000 before the summit, with other mainstream Crypto Assets experiencing increases ranging from 5% to 25%.

However, the actual content of the summit did not meet market expectations. The meeting reiterated its stance on supporting industry development and moderate regulation, but no large-scale coin purchase plans or substantive new policies were announced. This led to a noticeable market correction after the summit, with Bitcoin falling by about 3% to 5%, and other mainstream coins experiencing declines between 5% and 10%.

Nevertheless, compared to the strict controls of the previous government, the significant relaxation of current policies and regulatory environment still keeps the market relatively optimistic about medium to long-term development. Some investors hold a cautiously optimistic view on the future evolution of U.S. policies in the encryption field.

To fully understand the summit and its subsequent market fluctuations, we need to review the regulatory path and policy changes of the U.S. government in the encryption field in recent years. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of market trends before and after the summit, outline key policy signals, and offer an industry perspective on the long-term impact of this summit.

The Evolution of the U.S. Government's Attitude Towards Crypto Assets

Early Stage: Focused on Regulation and Risk Prevention

After the 2017 ICO bubble, U.S. regulators primarily focused on combating fraud, money laundering, and illegal capital flows. They strengthened relevant law enforcement efforts and required crypto asset exchanges to comply with anti-money laundering and customer identity verification regulations. At that time, the government regulated crypto assets mainly based on the existing legal framework, without introducing specific federal legislation or regulatory sandboxes.

Trump's First Term and Biden's Era: Fluctuating Attitudes and Stricter Law Enforcement

During Trump's first term (2017-2020), he generally held a skeptical attitude towards Crypto Assets. In 2019, he publicly stated that he did not like Bitcoin and other Crypto Assets, believing that they would undermine the position of the US dollar. During this period, the government intensified its law enforcement against ICO fraud cases and proposed to strengthen regulation of self-custody wallets at the end of 2020.

During the Biden administration (2021-2024), although an executive order on digital assets was issued in 2022 requiring federal agencies to coordinate research on issues related to Crypto Assets, the subsequent enforcement efforts have actually intensified. Regulatory agencies have sued several large Crypto companies, and market concerns about legal risks have increased, which has somewhat suppressed the participation of institutional investors.

Post-2024 Election: Policy Shift to "Crypto-Friendly"

In January 2025, after Trump took office again, he quickly signed an executive order declaring that the United States would become the "global Crypto Assets capital." He revoked many regulatory policies of the previous administration, halted some lawsuits against Crypto Assets exchanges, and appointed a dedicated head for artificial intelligence and Crypto Assets affairs.

In late February 2025, Trump signed an executive order to establish a "strategic Bitcoin reserve," but it was limited to retaining approximately 200,000 Bitcoins previously seized by the government, with no plans for additional purchases. This move sent a strong signal to the market, but also dashed the widespread expectation that the "United States would make large purchases of various Crypto Assets."

Market Expectations and Enthusiasm Before the Summit

Before the official opening of the summit, the Trump administration hinted at potentially including multiple Crypto Assets in the "new U.S. Crypto Assets strategic reserve." As a result, the market's expectations for a possible major positive announcement from the government rapidly increased. Bitcoin rose from $84,000 to nearly $95,000, and several other mainstream Crypto Assets also saw significant gains.

The market originally expected the government to announce stronger favorable policies at the summit, such as using the federal budget to officially purchase Bitcoin or other mainstream coins, thus further pushing up market prices. Driven by this expectation, market liquidity significantly increased, and trading volume along with the number of open contracts for derivatives also grew rapidly. Overall market sentiment has become optimistic, and investors' imagination of a "government endorsement" has been quickly amplified.

However, the actual content of the executive order does not include any new procurement plans, only stating that "the federal government will not sell the Bitcoin assets it currently holds," which means that there is limited new buying space in the short term, ultimately becoming one of the main reasons for the market correction after the summit.

Summit Live: Policy Direction Clear, but Lacks Details

On March 7, the White House held the first "Crypto Assets Summit," attracting over 20 key figures from the American crypto industry. Although the conference was promoted as "setting the tone for U.S. crypto regulation policy for the next four years," no clear new policies or large-scale coin purchase plans were announced.

Trump himself attended for only about 30 minutes, stating that "the war on Crypto Assets by the previous administration is over," and emphasized that the government will provide regulatory certainty for the crypto market at the legislative level. The subsequent closed-door discussions were moderated by government officials, and attendees made several suggestions, but these suggestions did not receive any immediate commitments or guarantees.

The meeting reaffirmed the tone of "friendly legislation and light-touch regulation," but did not issue any new executive orders or immediate bills, indicating that the government is still in the stage of gathering industry opinions and discussing regulatory details.

Mainstream financial media is more focused on Trump's willingness to "provide regulatory certainty for the Crypto Assets market" through Congressional legislation, believing that there has been a significant improvement compared to the previously uncertain situation.

Overall, the summit "set the general direction, lacking specific details", and the short-term impact on the market is more about the disappointment brought by "expectations being falsified", rather than a disruptive positive outcome.

Market Trend Analysis Post-Summit

After the summit, the prices of Bitcoin and most mainstream coins experienced a correction. The main reason was that the market quickly digested the "gap between expectations and reality," leading to short-term selling pressure, with many investors choosing to sell or wait and see.

Overall, the market atmosphere has returned from the optimistic expectation of "policy is excellent" to rationality, beginning to correct the "overly high expectations". After losing the expectation of "government additional coin purchases", Bitcoin's price has short-term adjusted, but has not yet shown a breakdown; Ethereum and XRP also followed the overall market trend downward, while most other mainstream coins are in a state of "ending short-term upward trend, entering consolidation or adjustment".

In the derivatives market, funding rates have turned neutral or slightly negative, and the open interest has also decreased, reflecting a decline in the current market's bullish leverage willingness and a weakening of short-term speculative sentiment. Meanwhile, Solana has shown a slight increase against the trend due to the launch of futures and ETFs in mid-March, creating a certain independent market performance.

Although there has been a short-term decline overall, under the backdrop of significantly alleviated regulatory risks in the medium to long term, many institutions and long-term investors remain optimistic about the possibility of the U.S. introducing more specific legislation or guidelines in the future. Therefore, after experiencing a period of calm, the overall market still has the opportunity to gather buying momentum again if the government announces specific favorable policies in the future.

Conclusion: The crypto market is experiencing short-term fluctuations, but the long-term potential remains optimistic.

Regulatory and Legislative Trends

The first White House Crypto Assets Summit, although it did not introduce any significant new policies or immediate legislative actions, made it clear that the government supports "light-touch regulation to encourage industry development." From the policy perspective, the U.S. may become more proactive in formulating bills or regulatory mechanisms in the future, moving the market away from its previous "ambiguous or uncertain" state. If future legislation can be successfully implemented, it will encourage large financial institutions or technology companies to invest.

Market Sentiment and Institutional Participation

Compared to the strong suppression of the previous government, the regulatory risks today are relatively lower. Many institutional investors have become more tolerant of Crypto Assets, which may expand their digital asset businesses.

In the long term, "national-level reserves" and "government openness" are often important factors driving bull market cycles. Even if there is no large-scale cash purchase of coins this time, the market still anticipates that there will be more government cooperation projects or infrastructure investments in the future.

Long-term Outlook

In the short term, there is a gap between market expectations and actual results, leading to a price correction from the highs. Technical analysis and derivatives data indicate that trading sentiment has entered a wait-and-see period, with investors awaiting clearer policy details or an improvement in macroeconomic conditions.

In the medium to long term, as long as the direction of "the U.S. government officially recognizes that Crypto Assets have legal status and is willing to establish clear regulatory rules" remains unchanged, institutional funds and the developer ecosystem are still expected to continue flowing in. When the macroeconomic conditions and regulatory uncertainties gradually become clearer, the market may welcome a new wave of growth momentum. The current fluctuations are more of a digestion of "previous excessive expectations" rather than a reversal of trends. All parties are paying attention to whether the White House can formalize the opinions from this summit and implement them into a new regulatory system, which will become one of the key driving forces for the subsequent market trends.