Original Title: 5 Ideas Pitched at the White House Crypto Summit Behind Closed Doors
Original Author: Veronica Irwin, White House Correspondent
Original Translator: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: This article summarizes the main content of the White House Crypto Summit held on March 7, and proposes several policy recommendations. Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo suggested reviving the concept of "private armed vessels" from over 200 years ago, allowing the government to authorize hackers to counter cyber attacks from foreign adversaries. Michael Saylor proposed that the US should buy 5%-25% of the Bit supply, effectively becoming a "whale". Matt Huang of Paradigm spoke up for the Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Tenev advocated for the tokenization of financial assets.
The following is the original content (edited for readability):
Before the inaugural White House Crypto Summit on March 7, attendees had the opportunity to pitch realistic Bit and Block policy proposals to the White House's Bit team and top regulators.
President Trump himself did not participate in this discussion, only attending the broadcast portion in the first 30 minutes.
However, White House Digital Assets Advisor Bo Hines, Treasury Secretary Scott Baesent, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Acting CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer all attended this portion, according to one attendee.
Specifically, Sachs inquired about which new policy issues the White House should focus on. While details on the specific requests from attendees were kept confidential, Unchained has learned that five proposals were submitted for consideration.
Former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo: Privatizing White Hat Hackers
Former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo, the sole representative from Trump's first term to attend the summit, suggested that the US government revive the "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" Act, effectively allowing private companies to hack foreign adversaries on behalf of the US government, as Giancarlo explained in Unchained. These companies, referred to as "private armed vessels" in the Act, would be granted permission by the US government to take action to seize the property of foreign adversaries, such as the over $6 billion stolen by the North Korea-sponsored hacker group Lazarus.
The last time Congress granted such permissions was over 200 years ago, when these licenses were issued to encourage merchant ships to plunder the vessels of foreign adversaries (such as the British Royal Navy). At the time, private armed vessels were required to report the property they confiscated to the US government, although piracy was a serious problem.
According to the attendee, Secretary Baesent requested that Giancarlo and CoinFund Managing Partner and President Chris Burniske publish an op-ed on Cointelegraph mentioning this proposal.
Michael Saylor, Co-Founder of MicroStrategy: Bulk Buying Bit
Michael Saylor proposed during the summit that the US should purchase more Bit - and a lot of it. As CoinDesk first reported, Saylor told attendees that he hopes the US will acquire 5% to 25% of the total Bit supply over the next 20 years, or about 1,050,000 to 5,250,000 Bit. Currently, that much Bit is worth between $83 billion and $417 billion.
Saylor's proposal is clearly more ambitious than Senator Lummis' recently reintroduced "Bit Bill", which proposed the US acquire 1 million Bit, about 5% of the total supply, over the same time frame. In the last Congress, Lummis pushed for the Bit Bill to make it through committee, but it lacked strong enough support from within the Republican party, in addition to the partisan divide in Congress. The proposal for the government to acquire Bit has also been criticized as going against the libertarian principles behind Bit's creation, and that having a single entity control such a large portion of the supply would lead to increased centralization.
Legal experts say that if the US government were to use federal funds to purchase Bit (rather than the budget-neutral approach the President promised to establish a reserve fund in his executive order), it would likely require Congressional approval, as Congress holds the power of the purse under the Constitution - although some Bit advocacy groups have drafted potential executive orders that ostensibly identify loopholes that could allow the executive branch to take such action.
According to the CoinDesk report and photos of Saylor's notes posted on social media, he also proposed categorizing Bit into four types: tokens backed by specific issuers and used for capital formation, tokens backed by securities and commodities, currencies, and tokens used for capital preservation. He said this taxonomy could help address the legal uncertainty around how different types of digital assets should be regulated.
Matt Huang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Paradigm: Advocating for Roman Storm
Matt Huang did not directly request the government consider new policies, but rather called for attention to be focused on matters the government has deprioritized: the US Department of Justice's case against Bit mixer Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, according to a person briefed after the event.
The DOJ has charged naturalized US citizen Roman Storm for creating the tool, alleging money laundering, unlicensed money transmission, and sanctions violations, even though the tool actually provides privacy protection for users by obfuscating Bit transactions. Huang argued the DOJ should reconsider the prosecution from the Biden administration.
Tornado Cash processed over $2.8 billion in transactions in the six months before it was sanctioned by OFAC in August 2022, and Storm was charged a year later. Tornado Cash is built on the Ethereum blockchain and runs autonomously, not requiring developer approval of users or transactions. However, the DOJ has argued the developers failed to effectively intervene to prevent sanctioned entities, including the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, from using the tool.
DeFi advocates warn that holding Tornado Cash's developers liable for misuse of the software could deter developers from creating privacy-protecting tools, or even completely stifle the development of decentralized DeFi protocols.
While the SEC has withdrawn dozens of civil cases against Bit companies, the DOJ's criminal stance on this case remains unchanged, and the penalties are more severe.
Paradigm donated $1.25 million in January to Storm's legal defense, preparing for the trial set to begin in April. "The government's case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the misdeeds of third parties, which could have a chilling effect on the Bit industry and beyond," Huang said at the time on X.
David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc and Bitcoin Magazine: Urgently Acquiring Bit
Bailey used his time at the summit to encourage the White House to acquire as much Bit as possible through various means. First, Bailey urged the White House's Bit team to push for the passage of the Bit Bill, Lummis' legislation aimed at having the US purchase 1 million Bit over the next 20 years. Bailey said this is crucial because it would enshrine a strategic Bit reserve into federal law, which would be difficult for a future presidential administration to overturn, even if they had a different view on the value of Bit.
Bailey also told attendees he believes the government needs to "urgently" accumulate Bit in order to compete with other countries that have already purchased Bit, such as El Salvador and Bhutan, as well as others he expects to do so after Trump's executive order this month. For example, politicians in Germany, Brazil, and Poland are considering establishing Bit reserves. He even proposed the possibility of the US government partnering with Bit miners, providing access to hydroelectric power in exchange for the miners contributing to the strategic Bit reserve.
Third, Baily suggested that the United States utilize strategic Bit reserves to issue Bit-backed government bonds in the future. His reasoning is that debt partially backed by appreciating assets like Bit may lower the interest the U.S. government needs to pay.
Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets: Tokenization
Tenev focused his summit discussion not only on crypto tokens, but also on using Blockchain technology to tokenize traditional financial instruments, such as private company equity.
Tenev stated that the tokenization of these crypto asset securities would provide a competitive advantage for U.S. companies on the global stage. He said: "This benefits companies because it increases the potential shareholder base, it benefits the world because people can more easily access high-quality companies, and it benefits entrepreneurs because they can more easily raise capital."
Additionally, he mentioned that those who currently do not meet the wealth requirements to be accredited investors should be able to purchase these tokenized equities, fundamentally changing the investment dynamics in the U.S. to allow regular people to invest in pre-IPO companies.
Currently, in the U.S., only those with net assets exceeding $1 million, or annual income over $200,000 (or $300,000 combined with a spouse or partner) can be considered accredited investors.
In an op-ed earlier this year, Tenev stated that these wealth-based requirements unfairly prevent regular people from maximizing their investments, and called for the SEC to allow people to self-certify based on demonstrating a deep understanding of investment risks. Notably, Robinhood's app-based investment platform aims to make investing more accessible to low- and middle-income groups, and expanding the assets available to this user base would undoubtedly benefit them.
Outlook
Government representatives at the summit did not promise to implement any of the proposals presented to attendees. However, according to White House sources, "the purpose of the summit was to solicit input and feedback from the crypto industry." "The summit was a success, receiving praise from government and industry leaders."
