Nearly 400 leaders from finance and crypto gathered at Mar-a-Lago for the Trump family’s World Liberty Forum. The guest list included Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, CFTC Chair Michael Selig, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and Nicki Minaj. CNBC’s weekly recap placed the event against a weak market backdrop: Bitcoin is down 23% this year and sentiment sits in extreme fear, yet major institutional names still showed up in force.
Mar-a-Lago forum draws Wall Street and crypto executives
The event was hosted by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump through World Liberty Financial. The Trump brothers framed the forum as a meeting point for crypto and traditional finance, saying the goal was to bring together top figures from both sectors to improve a system they described as broken, inefficient, slow, and not broadly democratized. The attendee mix stretched well beyond crypto-native firms, covering banks, exchanges, regulators, and public figures.
CLARITY Act faces April timeline as stablecoin yield debate continues
Senator Bernie Moreno said the CLARITY Act could become law by April. The bill passed the House last July, but it has stalled in the Senate over a central dispute: whether crypto platforms should be allowed to offer yield on stablecoins. Banks want that blocked. Crypto firms want the option preserved. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushed back on reports that the industry was responsible for sinking an earlier Senate Banking Committee draft. He said there is now a path to an outcome that works for crypto, banks, and consumers.
Dragonfly closes $650 million fund with major backers
Institutional capital is still being deployed even as retail activity cools. Dragonfly Capital said it closed its fourth fund at $650 million, with backing from JP Morgan, Harvard, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The firm’s top conviction is stablecoins. One of its portfolio companies, Rain, went from near zero in stablecoin settlement last April to more than $4 billion annualized with Visa. General partner Rob Hadick said 2025 and 2026 should bring a real acceleration in this financial shift, which is why investors wanted exposure.
Bitcoin slips while XRP posts a modest gain
Prices moved unevenly over the week. Bitcoin fell about 1.26% to $66,883, Ether slipped roughly 1% to $1,963, and XRP rose 1.26% to $1.41. Coinbase Institutional’s John D’Agostino described $100,000 as a psychological level, saying some long-term holders who bought much earlier used that move to deleverage and cut risk.