The crypto summit that crashed crypto

Last Friday’s inaugural White House Crypto Summit was a tale of great expectations that ultimately fell flat (despite the “beautiful” FIFA 2026 World Cup trophy presentation). The crypto market overall reacted poorly to the super-hyped event and bitcoin continued its downward trajectory Monday.  

On March 6, the eve of the summit and the day President Trump signed the executive order establishing the bitcoin reserve, bitcoin’s price was about $90,000. As of writing, bitcoin’s price has plummeted to under $79,500, down more than 27% from the all-time high of $109,114 it hit on Inauguration Day.  

Some are raising alarm bells on the crypto market, with Arthur Hayes, cofounder of BitMEX and CIO Maelstromfund, saying that bitcoin’s price represents “an ugly start to the week.” 

“Donald Trump’s much anticipated crypto summit was an exemplary exercise in public relations. While promising great change for crypto, the US president delivered almost nothing,” Kai Wawrzinek, cofounder of Impossible Cloud Network, said.

While the summit is being hailed by many as a positive step for the industry, most of the frustration centers around the executive order and the suggestion that the government would not buy additional bitcoin for the reserve, which was reiterated during the summit.

Instead, it will use assets “owned by the Department of Treasury that was forfeited in criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.” 

Nic Puckrin, founder of Coin Bureau, told Sherwood News that this is a classic example of market expectations running a bit hot.

“Many investors had convinced themselves the US government would be making new bitcoin purchases for this reserve, so markets rallied a bit too hard before the announcement and were then somewhat disappointed when it turned out that it will just be holding onto seized bitcoin,” Puckrin said.

He added that while there is a stipulation that the government could potentially look to accumulate further if it’s deemed “budget neutral” by the Commerce Secretary and Treasury Department, there’s no clarity on what this means.

One silver lining is that the government won’t sell the bitcoin it holds, which could have placed further pressure on prices.

“It also means any bitcoin seized in the future won’t be sold, which is great news as it avoids the kind of selling pressure we saw when the German government disposed of 49,858 bitcoin last year,” Puckrin said.

Patrick Gruhn, former head of FTX Europe and CEO of Perpetuals, echoed the sentiment, saying that in addition to the government not buying “massive quantities of bitcoin,” as was initially expected, the summit did not clarify the government’s policy plan for the cryptocurrency sector.

“Such ambiguity would discourage institutions from market entry and cause price volatility,” Gruhn said. 

Another factor weighing on bitcoin’s price is the ongoing debate on whether a national bitcoin reserve is antithetical to the asset’s initial purpose: decentralization.

Chris Seedor, founder and CEO of SEEDOR.io, Bitsurance.eu, and Satskeeper.com, said this has apparently divided the crypto community.

“Some bitcoin maximalists consider government involvement fundamentally contrary to bitcoin’s ethos and have responded by reducing their exposure,” he said.

Yet, he added that despite the short-term volatility, bitcoin’s fundamentals remain intact.

“Government recognition of bitcoin’s strategic value suggests long-term legitimacy, even as the market processes what this means for cryptocurrency’s role in the global financial system,” he said. 

The sell-off is also hitting companies like Coinbase, Robinhood, and bitcoin stockpiler Strategy, which are all down double digits on Monday morning.

(Robinhood Markets, Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.)