Ethereum’s Indirect Representation at White House Crypto Summit Sparks Concerns

US President Donald Trump will host a White House Crypto Summit on Friday, bringing together top industry executives to discuss the future of digital assets in the country.

However, concerns are growing over the apparent lack of explicit Ethereum (ETH) representation at the high-profile event.

Confirmed Attendees and the Agenda

According to Fox Business correspondent Eleanor Terret, notable industry leaders have confirmed their attendance. These include MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey, and Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang.

Others include Exodus CEO J.P. Richardson, Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani, and World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, and Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi have also confirmed attendance, reportedly.

The meeting, expected to host 20-25 attendees, will be a roundtable format. It will include members of the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets, signaling a focused effort to align crypto policy with regulatory considerations.

The impact of digital assets on financial markets, regulatory frameworks, and the broader economy is anticipated to be a key topic of discussion. As BeInCrypto reported, the summit could also address recent policy developments, including how to fund the US crypto reserve. Some also anticipate tax incentives for crypto transactions.

“Sources say the Trump administration [is] preparing to announce zero capital gains on crypto sales at Friday’s crypto summit,” investor Mike Alfred shared on X (Twitter).

Ethereum’s Indirect Presence

Despite the presence of executives from firms deeply involved in the Ethereum ecosystem, critics argue that a more direct Ethereum representative should be present. Ethereum educator Sassal pointed out that many confirmed attendees are actively building on Ethereum.

Specifically, the World Liberty Finance operates on Ethereum Layer 1. Meanwhile, Chainlink, though a chain-agnostic, has a significant presence in the Ethereum ecosystem. Similarly, Coinbase developed Base as an Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) and has a vested interest in Circle, the issuer of USDC stablecoin, which primarily operates on Ethereum.

Further, Robinhood is closely working with Arbitrum (ARB), an Ethereum L2 scaling solution. Kraken exchange is also developing Ink, another Ethereum L2, and has been a strong Ethereum advocate for years.

“People are asking if Ethereum is going to be represented at the White House Crypto meeting and well, all of these people are building on Ethereum,” wrote Sassal.

While Ethereum has indirect representation through these firms, experts suggest having a direct Ethereum leader in attendance. Among the highlighted representations is a member of the Ethereum Foundation or an ETH core developer would better highlight the network’s significance in the crypto space.

Against this backdrop, Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan has been suggested as a potential representative. However, his attendance remains unconfirmed.

“…I think I could do an excellent job broadly representing Ethereum’s interests in this kind of environment. Put me in,” Ryan remarked.

One key figure missing from the confirmed attendee list is Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Given the strained geopolitical relations between the US and Russia, some speculate that his Russian-Canadian background could be a factor. However, Buterin has not made an official statement regarding his participation in the summit.

Notably, there is still time for additional confirmations, and the Ethereum community could still have a more explicit voice in the discussions.

ETH Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto

BeInCrypto data shows that Ethereum’s price has risen by over 4% in the past 24 hours. As of this writing, ETH was trading for $2,177.