Last week, the White House is currently hosting a high-profile crypto summit featuring major industry leaders — but notably absent from the invite list are Bitcoin miners.
Exchange CEOs, project leaders, and prominent figures like Michael Saylor and David Bailey from Bitcoin Magazine were in attendance . Yet, Bitcoin mining executives have been left out, a move that Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of HIVE Digital Technologies, believes is a serious oversight.
“I actually noticed while we were doing this interview that none of them are Bitcoin miners. Actually. We have exchange CEOs, project leaders, Michael Saylor, David Bailey from Bitcoin Magazine, basically every exchange CEO — obviously, as I said, no miners,” Roundtable host Scott Melker said while discussing the summit with Holmes.
Holmes criticized the decision, arguing that Bitcoin mining plays a crucial role in the ecosystem and should not be ignored.
“Yeah, I think that’s their mistake,” Holmes stated. “But this is part of the journey. Trump has said that he wants it [Bitcoin mining] in America, not in other countries. And I think that that’s a really important part.”
Holmes noted the broader economic and environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining, which extend beyond just securing the network.
“The crypto mining industry has been able to show what we do is that we recycle the electricity in cold climates and we heat a building five times larger from the same molecule of electricity. And so there’s been so many unique things about what Bitcoin mining can do besides mining Bitcoin,” he explained.
He also emphasized the importance of miners in balancing the power grid, particularly in cases where stranded electricity would otherwise go to waste.
“Balance, the grid is really important where there’s stranded electricity going nowhere being wasted, all of a sudden you create economic activity with Bitcoin mining,” Holmes added.
Despite the disappointment over the summit’s exclusion of miners, Holmes remains optimistic about Bitcoin’s trajectory.
“I was reading the expectations are Bitcoin is down because people had all these incredible expectations. It’s a journey. It’s a step. America’s now embraced this technology — it’s very significant globally as well as domestically,” he said.
Holmes predicted that the momentum would continue beyond just U.S. states and small nations like El Salvador and Bhutan.
“We’re going to get all the states aligned and we’re going to get other countries besides Bhutan and El Salvador. We’re going to get some major countries to say, you know what? We have to embrace Bitcoin,” he added.
