President Donald Trump made history as the first sitting U.S. president to address a cryptocurrency summit, delivering a pre-recorded speech at the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in New York on March 20.
In his speech, the President urged Congress to swiftly pass stablecoin regulations, arguing that a well-defined legal framework would provide the necessary clarity for institutional adoption.
Stablecoins Could Enhance the Dollar’s Competitiveness
He positioned stablecoins as a vital tool for strengthening U.S. dollar dominance on the global stage. According to Trump, they could enhance the dollar’s competitiveness by providing a seamless, blockchain-powered financial system that is both transparent and efficient. He declared:
We are going to make America the Bitcoin superpower and the crypto capital of the world, No more uncertainty, no more regulatory hostility. We are setting the rules for innovation, and we are embracing the future of finance.
Trump’s comments also included a direct attack on what he called the “regulatory war” on digital assets under previous administrations. He criticized past enforcement actions, particularly Operation Choke Point 2.0, which he claimed weaponized financial regulations against the crypto industry. Trump stated:
We’re ending the last administration’s regulatory war on crypto and Bitcoin, that includes stopping the lawless Operation Choke Point 2.0, which was nothing short of a disgrace. That ends now.
His remarks signaled a policy shift aimed at fostering innovation rather than suppressing it through legal ambiguity. The president highlighted the administration’s recent creation of the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, an initiative designed to ensure the government retains Bitcoin holdings rather than selling them prematurely at lower valuations.
The U.S. making inroads with regulation comes at a time when stablecoins have processed over $27 trillion in transactions, surpassing both Visa and Mastercard in payment volume
Bo Hines, the Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, echoed this sentiment earlier in the week, stating that the U.S. should accumulate Bitcoin as aggressively as possible, comparing it to digital gold. Hines told the audience at DAS:
How much do we want? As much as we can get
