A Night of Crypto Surge: What Did Trump Say?

Source: Trump's White House Speech

Compiled by Odaily (@OdailyChina); Translator: Azuma (@azuma_eth)

Editor's Note: In the early hours of August 20 Beijing time, the White House convened a gathering of senior cryptocurrency industry executives. Trump personally attended and delivered a speech. Government officials from the SEC and CFTC, industry representatives from Robinhood, Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, and a16z, as well as top traditional finance executives from Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq, all participated in the meeting.

Likely buoyed by this clear signal, the cryptocurrency market surged overnight, with BTC briefly breaking through the $70,000 mark and ETH gaining nearly 20% — see details in Bull Run: Four Drivers Behind the Overnight Surge Across the Crypto Market.

Below is Trump's speech at the meeting, compiled by Odaily.

Honestly, there are some very important people in this room today. If you love the financial world as much as I do — and I really love finance — the people here today are giants in the financial world. It's amazing; you might not recognize some of them, but anyone in finance would know every single one of them.

Thank you all very much for being here today. We are thrilled to welcome some of the finest talent in American finance, cryptocurrency, and technology.

Here in Washington, D.C., we are about to host the first meeting of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee. This is a committee made up of very smart people who will advise us on what we should do.

Right, Paul (referring to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins)? They're going to tell us a thing or two.

But I think Paul probably understands these issues better than anyone. He's doing a phenomenal job. We're all very pleased with Paul, and I think you all agree. He's truly excellent.

From crypto markets and prediction markets to traditional finance and decentralized finance, the people in this room are ensuring that the future of commercial markets is pioneered and perfected right here in America.

We are competing with many other countries for control of these markets, market share, and the profits, jobs, and everything else they create. And we are doing very well. We lead in every area, including artificial intelligence, and by a wide margin. We want to maintain that lead.

I want to thank CFTC Chairman Michael Selig for his outstanding leadership. (Looking for him) Michael, come on over... (Then, noticing he's right there) Oh wow, you're so close, I almost didn't recognize you.

I also want to thank a very special person, someone who has long been respected by everyone. I wanted him in this position from the start — even before he became SEC Chairman, I wanted him to do this job.

Paul Atkins, you are doing a superb job, and no matter what you encounter, you handle it well. You've done a lot for the country. So I want to thank you very much. Well done. Thank you.

We also welcome Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the Presidential Digital Assets Advisory Council... as well as many top industry leaders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, one of the best in this field.

(To Brian) Where are you? Where'd you go? Oh, you look good. You look much younger. Looking sharp.

And Jeff Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange. They own a small institution called the New York Stock Exchange. Yes, he owns the NYSE. That's a pretty nice asset, right?

And Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman. Thank you very much. You're doing a great job.

Also Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, thank you. Great to see you.

And Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi. (Looking around) Wherever you are, thank you very much.

Thank you all. This is a remarkable group. We have a few others here whom we also hoped would attend.

(Still scanning the room) Where is Mike (referring to Mike Belshe)? He's the co-founder, CEO, CTO, and President of BitGo. BitGo is a major player in the crypto space.

And Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Brad, thank you very much.

Chainlink Labs co-founder Sergey Nazarov. Thank you very much, Sergey, well done.

(Again looking for the Kraken CEO) Arjun, are you here? Oh, Arjun, I'm still here, and you're still here too — you haven't left.

Peter Smith (referring to Blockchain.com CEO) is also here.

And Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (referring to Gemini's co-founders), both wonderful people and outstanding investors. Chris Dixon (referring to a16z crypto managing partner) is here as well.

I think I've basically named everyone. If I missed anyone — by the way... they gave me four lists, so it's a bit complicated. You definitely don't want to say the same name more than three times in a row, especially not during the "corrupt Joe Biden administration."

The innovative spirit that once birthed this nation was dealt a severe blow like never before, particularly in cryptocurrency and other emerging financial technologies. We were on the verge of being completely left behind by China and other countries.

The radical left tried to strangle these developments with devastating regulation, brutal restrictions, and weaponization. They used political means to suppress and continually targeted this industry, ultimately driving innovation overseas.

That's exactly what they wanted — to drive innovation out. But near the end of the campaign — if you remember — they suddenly declared they loved cryptocurrency, because they suddenly realized that over 100 million people were starting to like Trump more, simply because I supported crypto.

They were against it, and then suddenly they were all for it. But by then, it was too late.

Those days are completely over. That was a very bad period, especially for many good, honest financial professionals.

On day one, we fired Gary Gensler, the out-of-control SEC Chairman from the Biden administration.

I think we prefer Paul (applause), right?

The top guy (referring to the SEC Chairman) got much smarter. By the way, Paul is indeed much smarter, but regardless, we fired Gensler and sent him packing. We ended the so-called "Operation Choke Point 2.0" — that's what they called it — a form of political weaponization.

We ended the war on crypto once and for all. And now, the crypto industry is thriving. It's doing very well, and no one can stop it.

China certainly wants to get into this space; they're still trying.

I signed a historic executive order prohibiting any attempt to create a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

We launched "Project Crypto" to modernize the relevant rules and bring the American financial market into the era of blockchain technology.

I established the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, making Bitcoin a permanent asset of the U.S. Treasury. This policy has proven to be remarkably effective.

I also created the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile to custody all other digital assets. That's exactly its mission, and the results are stunning.

About a year ago this summer, I signed landmark legislation called the GENIUS Act. I came up with that name. I didn't want to name it after myself, so I called it the "GENIUS" Act.

This Act paved the way for the widespread adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins. This policy is working extremely well. Every American stands to benefit greatly from the U.S.'s position as the global financial center, and we intend to keep it that way. We are leading by a wide margin.

In the past 16 months, the progress we've made is almost unbelievable.

Not only that, but more investment capital is now flowing into the United States than into any other country at any time in history. Funds are pouring in at the scale of trillions of dollars.

America's economic dominance is generating trillions of dollars in investment, creating millions of jobs, and expanding access to credit and capital for everyone, giving every American the chance to achieve the "American Dream."

We hear the term "American Dream" a lot these days. Young people are rediscovering it. Two years ago, that wasn't on their minds.

New financial technology is extending this American dominance into the 21st century. That's why we are committed to establishing a clear regulatory framework for innovators and builders — like the ones here with me today. So they can confidently do business on American soil.

They don't need to go to other countries to do business.

We are ensuring that America not only remains the undisputed leader in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency but also in prediction markets, artificial intelligence, and many more technological fields.

And we are leading in every single one. Let me tell you, in AI, we are far ahead of the second-place country, which is China.

I never want to underestimate China. But right now, we are leading by a lot. President Xi Jinping will visit on September 24, and we look forward to that meeting. We might talk about AI and many other things.

But we are doing very well right now, and that is largely thanks to everyone in this room, as well as a few other friends on the committee who will be joining us in two weeks.

In May of this year, CFTC Chairman Michael approved the first true Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, listed on a CFTC-registered exchange. That's the first step.

I understand Michael is also working hard to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a fully compliant and legal manner. He's working on it very diligently.

We really want to see interest rates come down.

You know, in the past, interest rates used to be — many of you might be too young to know this — every time we released good economic data, interest rates would go down.

The theory was that asset values became more sound and more investment-worthy. But now, every time we release strong data (and we keep releasing good data), they keep pushing rates up for fear of inflation, which they absolutely should not be doing.

They shouldn't. They should be letting rates come down.

When you release good economic data, you shouldn't push rates higher because of it. They keep thinking they have to raise rates to curb inflation, but economic growth and success don't cause inflation. Inflation is caused by other factors.

We inherited the highest inflation in American history from the Biden administration. It drove up prices and everything else, and we are bringing all of that down.

But as America succeeds, interest rates should be allowed to fall, not rise because of that success.

Meanwhile, we are in the early stages of a financial revolution. Look at what's happening in the financial sector right now. Fintech has tremendous potential to create more jobs, more opportunities, and more wealth, benefiting all Americans. And that's exactly what it's doing — creating jobs and massive wealth.

I think nothing reflects this better than the stock market. In a very short period, about a year and a half, our stock market has hit record highs on 80 different days.

I haven't checked today, and maybe I shouldn't, I don't want to, but I heard things are going well today.

(Calling out to the ICE CEO) Jeff, the stock market has hit 80 record highs, no one has ever seen anything like this before, right?

And I think we're taking it to another level, maybe an even higher one — in terms of its significance.

401(k) retirement accounts have hit record highs about 40% of the time during my presidency. This affects tens of millions of Americans; 401(k) accounts are now at record levels.

So, two years ago, our country was "dead." And now, our country is the hottest in the entire world. No one else even comes close. No other country can compare. Every country will acknowledge that.

So now, we need Congress to take the next step and pass the CLARITY Act. A fair version of the CLARITY Act would be landmark framework legislation.

This is a very, very powerful market structure bill. It will keep us ahead of China and all other countries. At the same time, it will open the door for the next wave of innovation and the next generation of innovators.

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