Trump’s Crypto Summit – What to expect (and what you should do right now)

Trump's crypto task force hosts an event on Friday to set out his plan for crypto.

Weeks after his January executive order outlined his administration's priorities for the crypto industry, US president Donald Trump is finally putting his plan into action by hosting an inaugural crypto summit at the White House on Friday.

Led by David Sacks, Trump's AI and crypto czar, the summit will explore the role of crypto in the US financial system and likely set a new regulatory framework for digital assets.

In attendance will be key members of the Trump administration and around 25 crypto industry figureheads.

Notable attendees will include Michael Saylor, Strategy (MSTR) chairman and vocal Bitcoin advocate, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov.

But what can we expect from the summit in terms of actual announcements?

Will there be any trademark Trump bombshells?

And what should crypto investors do in the meantime?

Here are 3 of the biggest announcements we can expect:

1. The official launch of the US crypto strategic reserve

This seems like a foregone conclusion after Trump's recent social media posts announced the likely inclusion of Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano in a US national crypto reserve.

However, it's unclear how the Trump administration could actually formalise this reserve without the approval of Congress, where it's likely to face some opposition.

It's also yet to be confirmed whether a reserve would see the government actively invest in crypto.

The other possibility is that the reserve would simply be composed of crypto assets that all already in the hands of the US government from various law enforcement actions, as proposed in Trump's initial executive order.

2. New stablecoin policy

The summit is very likely to cover the role that stablecoins, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), may play in the US financial system going forward.

While Trump's executive order in January seemed to rule out an official US "digital dollar", the summit should bring some clarity to the administration's official position and may lay the foundations for a new regulatory crypto framework.

3. No capital gains tax on cryptocurrency

According to recent internet rumours, the most dramatic development of the crypto summit could be the announcement that no taxes would need to be paid on capital gains realised from buying and selling cryptocurrency in the US.

If the rumours are true, this could make cryptocurrency a drastically more attractive investment compared to other assets like stocks and property. It could also usher in a new crypto bull market if larger investors decide to allocate more of their capital to the crypto markets in the expectation of minimising their taxes.

While there has been no official word on this, reports suggest that Eric Trump had proposed the idea in his Discord channel in January and the rumour has gathered traction in the lead-up to the summit.

What you should do

As has been standard under the Trump presidency, it's hard to know exactly what to expect from his inaugural crypto summit.

While positive policy announcements would undoubtedly be bullish for the long-term future of cryptocurrency, it's possible that the summit may under-deliver on expectations or even have a net negative impact depending on what actually gets announced.

The crypto markets are also likely to be volatile both leading up to the summit and in the days to follow.

While Bitcoin has recovered somewhat after a fairly dismal February, crypto prices remain fairly fragile and short-term sentiment is likely to be heavily swayed by the outcome of the summit.