Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump on Friday doubled down on his embrace of cryptocurrencies as he hosted top industry players at the White House, while making investments in the field.

US crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the deep skepticism of the previous Democratic administration toward digital currencies.

“Last year, I promised to make America the bitcoin superpower of the world and crypto capital of the planet, and we’re taking historic action to deliver on that promise,” Trump told the assembled room of executives.

Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has already taken significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles and has money invested.

Trump has partnered with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launched the “Trump” memecoin in January.

First Lady Melania Trump announced a memecoin of her own, $MELANIA, one day before her husband’s January 20 inauguration.

The prominent founders, CEOs and investors, along with members of a Trump working group, assembled Friday to help craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth.

On the eve of the event, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” that would audit the government’s bitcoin reserves, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures.

“Unfortunately, in recent years, the US government has foolishly sold tens of thousands of additional bitcoin that were worth billions and billions of dollars had they not sold them,” Trump said in his opening remarks.

“From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin investor knows very well: never sell your bitcoin.”

Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is heralded by advocates as a substitute for gold or a hedge against currency devaluation and political instability.

Trump donor and Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, the administration’s “crypto czar,” said that if previous administrations had held onto their digital holdings over the past decade, rather than selling them, they would be worth $17 billion today.

- ‘Like criminals’ -

The summit’s guest list included twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto platform Gemini, as well as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Michael Saylor, the boss of major Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy.

In a gesture to the industry, Trump has already appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under Atkins, the SEC has dropped legal proceedings against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken that were initiated during former president Joe Biden’s term.

Biden’s administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies – which have since been lifted – and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.

Sacks said the Biden administration treated the industry “like criminals” and launched investigations when there were no clear rules of the road.

“We never thought that we would get attacked the way we did in our own backyard after trying to do the right thing for so many years,” Cameron Winklevoss told the meeting.

For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals an alternative to traditional banking systems.

Critics meanwhile maintain that these assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could leave taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up if the market crashes.

The proliferation of “memecoins” – cryptocurrencies based on celebrities, internet memes, or pop culture items rather than technical utility – presents another challenge.

Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.

Asked about the risky nature of crypto investing, Sacks said that the government’s embrace of the industry did not amount to investment advice and warned that digital currencies were highly volatile, encouraging Americans to talk to an advisor before entering the market.

“My job is not to encourage people to buy crypto. My job is to create an innovation framework for the United States,” he added as he arrived at the White House.