Behind the White House Crypto Summit, 5 Closed-Door Proposals You Didn’t Know About

Original Title: “5 Ideas Pitched at the White House Crypto Summit Behind Closed Doors” Author: Veronica Irwin, White House Author Compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats

Editor’s Note: This article summarizes the key points of the White House cryptocurrency summit held on March 7, proposing several policy recommendations. Former CFTC Chairman Giancarlo suggested reviving the concept of “private armed vessels” from 200 years ago, allowing the government to authorize hackers to combat foreign cyberattacks. Michael Saylor advocated that the U.S. should purchase 5%-25% of the Bitcoin supply, becoming a “super whale” directly. Matt Huang from Paradigm voiced support for the developers of Tornado Cash, while Tenev pushed for the tokenization of financial assets.

The following is the original text (for ease of reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):

Before the first White House Cryptocurrency Summit held on March 7, participants had the opportunity to present realistic cryptocurrency policy recommendations to the White House’s cryptocurrency team and top regulatory agencies.

President Trump himself did not participate in the discussion, only attending the broadcast portion for the first 30 minutes of the summit.

However, Bo Hines, the Executive Director of the White House Digital Asset Advisory Committee, Treasury Secretary Scott Betters, Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairwoman Caroline Pham, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer all attended this part of the event, a participant disclosed.

Specifically, Sachs asked which new policy issues the White House should focus on. Although specific request information from the participants remains confidential, Unchained has managed to learn that five proposals have been submitted for consideration.

Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo: Privatizing White Hat Hackers

Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo was the only representative to attend the summit during Trump’s first term, and he suggested that the U.S. government reinstate the Letters of Marque and Reprisal, effectively allowing private companies to conduct hacking operations against foreign adversaries on behalf of the U.S. government, as Giancarlo explained in Unchained. These companies, referred to as “private armed ships” in the legislation, would be granted permission by the U.S. government to take action to seize the assets of foreign adversaries, such as the over $6 billion stolen by the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus.

The last time Congress granted such a license was over 200 years ago, when these licenses were issued to encourage the raiding of foreign rival ships (such as those of the British Royal Navy) by merchant vessels. At that time, privately armed ships were required to report the property they seized to the U.S. government, although piracy was a serious issue.

According to the participants, Minister Besant requested to send the editorial by Giancarlo and Chris Perkins, managing partner and president of CoinFund, published on Cointelegraph regarding the mention of this topic.

Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategic Company: Large purchases of Bitcoin

Michael Saylor proposed during the summit that the United States should buy more Bitcoin — and a lot of Bitcoin. As CoinDesk first reported, Saylor told attendees that he hoped the U.S. would acquire 5% to 25% of the total supply of Bitcoin over the next 20 years, which amounts to approximately 1,050,000 to 5,250,000 Bitcoins. Currently, the value of that many Bitcoins ranges from $83 billion to $417 billion.

Saylor’s proposal is clearly more ambitious than Senator Lummis’s recently reintroduced “Bitcoin Bill,” which suggests that the U.S. acquire 1 million bitcoins, accounting for about 5% of the total supply, with a time span similar to Saylor’s proposal. In the last Congress, Lummis worked to push the “Bitcoin Bill” through committee review, but due to the bipartisan divide in Congress, support within the Republican Party was also not strong enough. The proposal for the government to acquire bitcoins has also faced criticism, as it is seen to contradict the liberal ideals behind Bitcoin’s creation, and having such a large proportion of the supply controlled by a single entity would lead to a more centralized situation.

Legal experts indicate that if the U.S. government uses federal funds to purchase Bitcoin (rather than adopting a budget-neutral strategy, as the president has promised to establish a reserve fund in his executive order), it may require congressional approval, because under the Constitution, Congress holds the power of fiscal appropriation—although some Bitcoin advocacy organizations have drafted potential executive orders that ostensibly identify possible loopholes allowing the executive branch to take such action.

According to a report by CoinDesk and photos of the Saylor notes posted on social media, he also proposed categorizing cryptocurrencies into four types: tokens backed by specific issuers used for capital creation, tokens backed by securities and commodities, currencies, and tokens used for capital preservation. He stated that adopting this classification would help address the legal uncertainties regarding how different types of digital assets should be regulated.

Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm: Fighting for justice for Roman Storm

Matt Huang did not directly ask the government to consider new policies, but instead urged attention to be focused on matters that the government has deprioritized: the case of Roman Storm, an American developer of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, according to a person briefed after the meeting.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged naturalized American citizen Roman Storm with money laundering, unlicensed money transmission, and violations of sanctions for creating a tool that effectively provides users with privacy protection by obfuscating cryptocurrency transactions. Huang stated that the Department of Justice should reconsider the lawsuits from the Biden administration.

Tornado Cash processed more than $2.8 billion in transactions in the six months before it was sanctioned by OFAC in August 2022, while Storm was indicted a year later. Tornado Cash is built on the Ethereum blockchain, runs automatically, and does not require developers to approve users or transactions in order to function. However, the DOJ said the developers failed to effectively intervene to prevent sanctioned entities, including the North Korean hacking group Lazarus, from using the tool.

DeFi advocates warn that holding the developers of Tornado Cash responsible for the malicious use of their software could discourage developers from creating tools aimed at protecting privacy, and even worse, could completely stifle the development of decentralized DeFi programs.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dismissed dozens of civil cases against crypto companies, the Department of Justice’s stance on this criminal case remains unchanged, and the penalties in this case are even harsher.

Paradigm donated $1.25 million for Storm’s legal defense in January, preparing for the trial set to begin in April. “The prosecution’s case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the misdeeds of third parties, which could have a chilling effect on the crypto industry and beyond,” Huang stated on X at the time.

David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc and Bitcoin Magazine: Urgent Purchase of Bitcoin

Bailey used his time at the summit to encourage the White House to use all means possible to acquire more Bitcoin. First, Bailey asked the White House’s crypto team to push for the “Bitcoin Bill,” a piece of legislation proposed by Loomis aimed at allowing the U.S. to purchase 1 million Bitcoins over the next 20 years. Bailey stated that this is crucial, as it would incorporate a strategic Bitcoin reserve into federal law, which would not be easily overturned by the next presidential administration, even if the new government had a different view on the value of Bitcoin.

Bailly also told attendees that he believes the government needs to “urgently” accumulate Bitcoin in order to compete with other countries that have already purchased Bitcoin, such as El Salvador and Bhutan, as well as with the anticipated Bitcoin acquisitions elsewhere after Trump signs an executive order this month. For example, politicians in Germany, Brazil, and Poland are considering establishing Bitcoin reserves. He even suggested the possibility of the U.S. government forming public-private partnerships with Bitcoin miners, providing access to hydroelectric power in exchange for Bitcoin miners contributing to a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Thirdly, Bailey suggested 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 reduce the interest that the U.S. government has to pay.

Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets: Tokenization

Tenev will focus the discussion at the summit not only on cryptocurrency tokens but also on the tokenization of traditional financial instruments using blockchain technology, such as the equity of private companies.

Tenev stated that the tokenization of these crypto asset securities will provide a competitive advantage for American companies on the global stage. He said, “This is beneficial for companies because it increases the potential shareholders, it is good for the world because people can more easily access high-quality companies, and it is beneficial for entrepreneurs because they can raise capital more easily.”

In addition, he also mentioned that those who currently do not meet the wealth requirements to become accredited investors should be able to purchase these tokenized equities, fundamentally changing the investment dynamics in the United States and allowing ordinary people to invest in companies that are not yet publicly listed.

Currently, in the United States, only individuals with a net worth exceeding $1 million, or an annual income exceeding $200,000 (or a combined income of $300,000 with a spouse or partner), can be recognized as accredited investors.

Tenev stated in a column published earlier this year that these wealth-based requirements unfairly prevent ordinary people from maximizing their investments and called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow individuals to self-certify by demonstrating a deep understanding of investment risks. Notably, Robinhood’s app-based investment platform aims to make it easier for low- and middle-income individuals to invest, and expanding the types of assets available to this user group will undoubtedly benefit them.

Outlook

The government representatives present did not promise the attendees to implement any of the suggestions they made. However, according to White House sources, “the purpose of the summit was to solicit opinions and feedback from the cryptocurrency industry.” “The summit was a success and received praise from government and industry leaders.”