Editor's Note: This article summarizes the main content of the White House Cryptocurrency Summit held on March 7, and proposes several policy recommendations. Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo suggested reviving the concept of "private armed vessels" from 200 years ago, allowing the government to authorize hackers to fight against foreign cyber attacks. Michael Saylor proposed that the US should buy 5%-25% of the BTC supply, directly becoming a "whale". Matt Huang of Paradigm spoke up for the Tornado Cash developer, and Tenev advocated for the tokenization of financial assets.
The following is the original content (edited for easier reading):
Before the inaugural White House BlockBeats Summit on March 7, attendees had the opportunity to present realistic Bit cryptocurrency policy recommendations to the White House's Bit team and top regulators.
President Trump himself did not attend the discussion, only attending the broadcast portion in the first 30 minutes of the summit.
However, Bo Hines, Executive Director of the White House Digital Assets Advisory Council, Treasury Secretary Scott Baesent, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Acting CFTC Chair Carline Pham, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer all attended this portion, according to one attendee.
Specifically, Sachs asked what new policy issues the White House should focus on. While details of the specific requests from attendees were kept confidential, Unchained has learned that five proposals have been submitted for consideration.
Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo: Privatize White Hat Hackers
Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, the only 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, called "private armed vessels" in the act, will be authorized 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 permits was over 200 years ago, when they were issued to encourage merchant ships to plunder the ships of foreign adversaries (such as the British Royal Navy). At the time, private armed vessels were required to report the property they seized to the US government, although piracy was a serious problem.
According to an 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 Purchase of BTC
Michael Saylor proposed during the summit that the US should purchase more BTC - and a lot of it. As first reported by CoinDesk, Saylor told attendees that he hopes the US will acquire 5% to 25% of the total BTC supply over the next 20 years, or about 1,050,000 to 5,250,000 BTC. Currently, that much BTC is worth between $83 billion and $417 billion.
Saylor's proposal is clearly more ambitious than Senator Lummis' recently reintroduced "BTC Bill", which proposes that the US acquire 1 million BTC, about 5% of the total supply, over the same time frame. In the last Congress, Lummis pushed for the BTC Bill to get 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 purchase BTC has also been criticized as going against the libertarian principles behind the creation of BTC, and having a single entity control such a large portion of the supply would lead to greater centralization.
Legal experts say that if the US government uses federal funds to purchase BTC (rather than a budget-neutral strategy, as the President promised to establish a reserve fund in his executive order), it may require Congressional approval, as Congress holds the power of the purse under the Constitution - although some BTC advocacy groups have drafted potential executive orders that identify loopholes that may 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 cryptocurrencies into four types: tokens backed by a specific issuer and used for capital formation, tokens backed by securities and commodities, currencies, and tokens used for capital preservation. He said this taxonomy would 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 Justice for Roman Storm
Matt Huang did not directly request the government to consider new policies, but rather called for attention to be focused on matters that the government has deprioritized: the US Department of Justice's case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, according to a post-briefing attendee.
The DOJ has accused naturalized US citizen Roman Storm of money laundering, unlicensed money transmission, and sanctions violations for creating the tool, which actually provides privacy protection for users by obfuscating crypto transactions. Huang said 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, runs autonomously, and does not require developer approval of users or transactions to operate. However, the DOJ has argued that the developers failed to effectively intervene to prevent sanctioned entities, including the North Korean Lazarus hacker group, from using the tool.
DeFi advocates warn that holding Tornado Cash developers liable for the misuse of their software by bad actors 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 crypto companies, the DOJ's stance in this criminal case remains unchanged, and the penalties are more severe.
Paradigm donated $1.25 million in January to fund Storm's legal defense, preparing for the trial scheduled to begin in April. "The prosecution's case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the actions of third parties, which could have a chilling effect on the crypto industry and beyond," Huang said at the time on X.
David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc and Bitcoin Magazine: Urgent BTC Purchases
Bailey used his time at the summit to urge the White House to acquire as much BTC as possible. First, Bailey asked the White House crypto team to push for the passage of the "BTC Bill" proposed by Lummis, which aims to have the US purchase 1 million BTC over the next 20 years. Bailey said this is crucial because it would enshrine a strategic BTC reserve into federal law, which would be difficult for a future presidential administration to overturn, even if they have a different view on the value of BTC.
Bailey also told attendees that he believes the government needs to "urgently" accumulate BTC in order to compete with other countries that have already purchased BTC, such as El Salvador and Bhutan, as well as others he expects to do so after Trump's expected executive order this month. For example, politicians in Germany, Brazil, and Poland are considering establishing BTC reserves. He even proposed the possibility of the US government partnering with BTC miners, providing access to hydroelectric power in exchange for the miners contributing to the strategic BTC reserve.
Third, Baily suggests that the United States utilize strategic Bitcoin reserves to issue Bitcoin-backed government bonds in the future. His reasoning is that debt partially backed by appreciating assets like Bitcoin 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 cryptocurrencies, 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 will provide U.S. companies a competitive advantage 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. and allowing 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.
Tenev stated in an op-ed earlier this year that these wealth-based requirements unfairly prevent regular people from maximizing their investments, and he 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."
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