"“It’s a pretty wild feeling to see so many people celebrating what this administration is doing, when 12 months ago the same individuals were in literal fear of these agencies,” said one crypto executive who attended the White House event. “We’re winning.”

The Trump administration’s about-face on crypto has led some mainstream financial institutions to embrace what was once a fringe investment. Banks that were all but prohibited by regulators from doing business with digital-asset firms are now being encouraged to dive in. Companies that securities regulators sued are now being courted to implant themselves into the systems Americans use to pay the mortgage or buy groceries.

The last time crypto suffered a major crash—leading to the failure of crypto exchange FTX in 2022—there was virtually no effect on the economy or wider financial system. The next time, that’s unlikely to be the case.

“All the guardrails are being removed at once,” says Lee Reiners, a fellow at the Duke Financial Economics Center. “There will be another downturn, and when it happens, the pain will be acute.”

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