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Trump's strategic reserve to include bitcoin, four other

coins

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Industry leaders seek clarity on crypto regulation and

scrutiny

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Concerns over Trump's crypto business interests and

conflict of

interest

By Suzanne McGee, Michelle Conlin, Trevor Hunnicutt

March 7 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency industry elite are

set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House

on Friday to discuss how the government will enact Trump's

vision of making the country the "crypto capital of the world."

Trump will host players including Michael Saylor, CEO of

MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) and Zach Witkoff, one of the founders of

the president's own crypto business, World Liberty Financial,

according to the executives' social media posts.

Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets ( HOOD ) will also

attend, according to a spokeswoman for Robinhood. Witkoff and

Saylor did not respond to requests for comment.

Attendees expect the event to focus on Trump's plans to build a

strategic reserve containing bitcoin and four other coins. Trump

on Thursday signed an executive order to establish the reserve,

directing the secretaries of Treasury and Commerce to develop

"budget-neutral strategies" for acquiring additional bitcoin

that have no "incremental costs" on taxpayers.

The event is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm ET (1830 GMT),

according to those invited.

The White House announced the summit last Friday, February 28,

but did not return a request for comment on the event's agenda

and attendees, nor on the possibility for executive actions.

"For the first time, industry leaders feel they're walking

into a collaborative discussion," said Les Borsai, co-founder of

Wave Digital Assets, a crypto investment adviser, who said he

did not receive an invitation.

Participants said they are focused on any further details on

the strategic reserve, a government stockpile of crypto assets.

The reserve will be capitalized with bitcoin owned by the

federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or

civil asset forfeiture proceedings, the White House crypto czar,

billionaire David Sacks, said in a post on social media platform

X.

"This (strategic reserve) is going to be the biggest point

of contention for many of us," said JP Richardson, co-founder

and CEO of Exodus, a bitcoin wallet developer. Although

he owns the four other coins that Trump has suggested including

in the reserve, he does not think they have a place in a

strategic reserve.

"Crypto has made big strides, but it's still a relatively

nascent industry," Richardson said. The other coins are smaller

and function in a very different way, one he said may create

more risk.

Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, posted on X on

Sunday that a bitcoin-only reserve was "probably ... the best

option." Both Richardson and Armstrong confirmed to Reuters that

they would be attending the summit.

In a post on X, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, who also

confirmed his attendance at the summit, hailed Trump's

recognition that "we live in a multichain world" stretching

beyond bitcoin. XRP, the coin tied to Ripple, is one of the four

other cryptocurrencies Trump has suggested may be added to a

crypto reserve.

Attendees said they were optimistic about working with an

administration that views crypto as a mainstream asset class and

expressed hope for a straightforward regulatory process.

"What everyone really needs to have at this point is clarity

on what the level of scrutiny and intensity of regulation will

be, who the key regulators will be," said Yesha Yadav, associate

dean and professor of law at Vanderbilt University.

That could speed up the process of approval by the Securities

and Exchange Commission of a flurry of new listings of

exchange-traded funds.

Trump's family has launched cryptocurrency meme coins and

he also holds a stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto

platform, which has sparked some conflict-of-interest concerns.

His aides have said Trump has handed over control of his

business ventures, which are being reviewed by outside ethics

lawyers. The White House did not respond to a request for

comment.