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Bitcoin fell as much as 6.5% on Monday, continuing its downward slide after President Donald Trump’s White House Crypto Summit failed to meet investor expectations for aggressive government purchases of digital assets.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped to around $80,650 before recovering slightly to $82,050 by early morning. This latest decline follows a nearly 7% drop last week after Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that will only hold coins seized from criminal cases rather than making new purchases.
“So we made this mistake of prematurely selling bitcoin when we should have held it,” said David Sacks, Trump’s “crypto czar.” He claimed the government lost over $16 billion by selling seized Bitcoin too early.
At the event, Trump called the reserve a “digital Fort Knox”. The government currently holds about 200,000 Bitcoin worth around $17 billion from seized assets.
Market watchers expected Trump to announce active government purchases of cryptocurrencies during the summit. When that didn’t happen, prices for Bitcoin and other digital assets dropped sharply.
“This [strategic reserve] is going to be the biggest point of contention for many of us,” said JP Richardson, who leads Exodus, a Bitcoin wallet company.
The price drop hit smaller cryptocurrencies even harder. XRP, Solana, and Cardano – which Trump had mentioned might be included in a government stockpile – fell between 26% and 30% in the week after the summit.
Not all market observers see the price drop as a long-term concern. Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC the market reaction was misguided.
“I absolutely think the market has this wrong,” Hougan said. “The market is short-term disappointed” that the government didn’t immediately commit to acquiring large amounts of Bitcoin.
Crypto industry leaders also welcomed the administration’s move away from the strict regulations of the Biden years.”The government representatives expressed that there has been a negative regime towards the crypto industry, and that regime is now coming to an end,” said Sergey Nazarov from Chainlink, who attended the summit.
Trump promised to push for stablecoin laws before August and end what crypto companies called “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” – efforts by the previous administration to keep banks from working with digital asset firms. Banking regulators have now published guidance allowing banks to offer crypto services without getting special approval first, marking a major policy shift.
Some critics worry about potential conflicts of interest. Trump currently owns crypto investments, including his stake in World Liberty Financial. The administration says Trump has handed control of his business interests to outside ethics lawyers for review.
The summit also addressed other key issues. Trump urged Congress to create clear rules for stablecoins and digital assets by August. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced banks can now engage in certain crypto activities without special permission.
“From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin knows very well, never sell your bitcoin,” Trump told attendees.
