Less than a year after US President Donald Trump took the stage at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, his then-running mate and current Vice President, JD Vance, delivered a keynote address at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Vance opened his speech by thanking the packed crowd of Bitcoin supporters at the venue for helping him and Trump win the 2024 elections, reminding the crypto community that they finally have a “champion and an ally in the White House.”
JD Vance says the Trump Administration understands the Potential and Importance of the Crypto Industry
He said that the Trump administration understands the potential of the digital assets industry and views it as not just an investment or “flashy technology” but as a “symbol and driver of personal liberty” for Americans.
The VP pointed out that the Biden administration hindered the industry’s potential and left the Trump White House with a mess of anti-crypto rules, regulatory red tape, and lawfare against crypto firms that required a major cleanup. He highlighted that the most important thing the current administration did for the crypto community was to reject regulators and fire Gary Gensler, former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“We’re going to fire everybody like him,” Vance said.
During his campaign speech at Bitcoin 2024, Trump threatened to fire Gensler and those like him who are hampering the growth of the crypto industry and promised to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. While he kept his word to make America a Bitcoin superpower by signing an executive order in March, creating a national BTC stockpile, the President could not fire Gensler, as the Biden-nominated SEC chairman stepped down on Inauguration Day, January 20.
The securities watchdog is now chaired by its former commissioner, Paul Atkins, who was endorsed by Trump for the position and confirmed by the Senate late last month. Atkins, a strong supporter of digital asset technology, said he plans to take a whole new approach to regulating cryptocurrencies at the agency.
US Vice President Warns that the US Risks Losing the $3T Industry to Other Countries Without a Friendly Regulatory Framework
Vance said that the next two crucial steps for the Trump administration in its mission to support the crypto industry are creating a clear, transparent, and tailored legal framework for stablecoins and digital assets. He called for a market structure bill that doesn’t restrict crypto but ensures that it is part of the mainstream economy.
The VP warned that if the US government fails to create regularity clarity, then the country risks losing the $3 trillion industry to friendlier offshore jurisdictions. Lawmakers in Washington are working to advance two crypto-specific bills, one to regulate stablecoins – the GENIUS Act, and the other to write rules for the sector at large.
Vance added that crypto is a hedge against bad policymaking and rising inflation that has eroded the real savings rate of Americans over the last four years. He also called it a hedge against the private sector, which, according to him, is increasingly discriminating against consumers based on their basic beliefs, including politics.
Vance Urges Bitcoin and Crypto Community to Embrace Politics
The VP highlighted the strategic and geopolitical importance of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, emphasizing that the US must ensure industry leadership to remain competitive in the age of digital finance. Vance told the audience that whatever happens in the world of politics and bureaucracy will affect even the “most transformational and valuable” technologies if the right decisions are not made.
He urged the Bitcoin community not to ignore politics and carry forward the momentum of their political involvement from 2024 to the midterm elections in 2026 and beyond.
Vance has been a strong advocate of cryptocurrencies and owns around $500,000 worth of Bitcoin, according to a financial disclosure he previously filed in the Senate. In 2022, he spoke out about censorship, arguing that the rising popularity of crypto usage could be tied to people losing banking access due to their political beliefs, taking the example of the truckers’ protest in Canada against former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The following year, he introduced a bill in the Senate to protect crypto firms, gun manufacturers, and energy companies from the Biden administration’s regulatory pressures. He highlighted that Bitcoin, owned by nearly 50 million Americans, has helped create a lot of wealth, calling it a “great thing.” Considering Bitcoin’s prowess, the VP believes that it is a strategically important asset for the United States over the next decade.
Also Read: Donald Trump Supports Senator Lummins’s Bill to Buy 1 Million BTC
Trump’s Crypto Czar Hints at Potential Plans by the US Gov to Acquire Bitcoin for Strategic Reserve
Meanwhile, Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar, David Sacks, said that the US government could buy more Bitcoin for the proposed strategic reserve if the purchase can be funded in a “budget-neutral” way without taxing citizens or adding to the growing national debt.
His comments came during a fireside chat at the Bitcoin 2025 conference with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Sacks noted that a pathway does exist where the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, could greenlight a program to divert unused funds from other government programs to acquire more Bitcoin.
Trump’s March 6 executive order states that any cryptocurrency forfeited as part of criminal or civil cases will be held in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and National Digital Assets Stockpile. As of April, the US government holds approximately 198,012 BTC, worth over $21 billion at current prices.
Most of these holdings came as part of two seizures, one from the dark web marketplace Silk Road that netted 120,721 BTC, and the other from Bitfinex exchange hacker Ilya Lichtenstein that led to federal authorities seizing 94,636 BTC. In 2023, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) under Biden previously sold 9,861 BTC for $215.7 million as part of its efforts to offload the assets.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose slightly following Vance’s speech at Bitcoin 2025, but is down nearly 1% since, currently trading at $107,890.