
Bitcoin Price Falls. Key Crypto Conference Fails to Lift Digital Coins. — Barrons.com
By Elsa Ohlen and Joe LightBitcoin's price edged down despite a flurry of crypto news, including an endorsement by Vice President JD Vance in a speech at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference under way in Las Vegas.The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency is down 2.2% over the past 24 hours to last trade at $107,800, according to CoinDesk data. Rival cryptos XRP and Solana were down about 3.4% and 3.7%, while Ether was down 1.3%.In his speech at the Las Vegas conference, Vance said Bitcoin represented "genuine, ground-up innovation" while adding he believed the number of Americans holding Bitcoin would double "before too long." He also thanked crypto executives like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who founded a crypto exchange, for supporting the Trump campaign and vowed that the White House would keep pushing for legislation that would further cement crypto's place in the financial system."If we fail to create regulatory clarity now, we risk chasing this $3 trillion industry offshore in search of a friendlier jurisdiction," Vance said.The Senate earlier this month advanced a bill that would create rules for so-called stablecoins, whose value is pegged to the dollar. Crypto industry executives are seeking to see that bill signed into law before turning to broader legislation that would regulate crypto brokers, exchanges, and tokens. The industry sees the legislation as critical to protecting crypto from a renewed crackdown under a future White House.In addition to supporting industry-favored legislation, Trump regulators swiftly dismissed Biden-era litigation against Coinbase Global and other companies for allegedly violating securities laws, which Coinbase and the others denied. Trump has also promised not to sell Bitcoins seized in criminal investigations and to establish a U.S. "strategic Bitcoin reserve."Bitcoin last week hit a record high of nearly $112,000, following easing trade tensions and the stablecoin legislation advancing in the Senate.There were more signs of Bitcoin's growing mainstream acceptance at the Bitcoin Conference.Fintech company Block announced Tuesday it will launch Bitcoin payments on its platform Square, with the first payments using the digital coin to be showcased at the conference. From there, Block intends to roll out Bitcoin payments during the second half of the year, with the aim for it to be available to all merchants in 2026.Speaking at the conference, President Donald Trump's son, Don Jr. said "we're seriously long Bitcoin," adding that is why they created a "Bitcoin treasury," referring to the announcement Tuesday morning that Truth Social parent Trump Media & Technology would raise $2.5 billion to invest in the digital coin.Crypto's total market capitalization has risen only 0.5% in the past 24 hours to $3.44 trillion, according to FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich.The analyst noted that number is below both Tuesday's intraday peaks of $3.49 trillion and last Friday's highs of $3.54 trillion, which is interesting given the risk appetite on stock markets over the past couple of days. "Perhaps the behaviour of cryptocurrencies indicates that optimism isn't so all-encompassing," he wrote.Leading chip maker Nvidia's quarterly earnings Wednesday after the bell could be another catalyst for risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] and Joe Light at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.