Trump’s Crypto Reserve Plans Split the Industry and Whipsawed the Market

United States President Donald Trump confirmed an executive order directing the Presidential Working Group to build a Crypto Strategic Reserve including BTC, ETH, XRP, ADA, and SOL.

Following the news, the markets skyrocketed, sending BTC up 12%, SOL up 26%, and ADA up 79% in less than 8 hours. However, the pump was short-lived, and the market gave back all of its gains and some after traditional markets opened on March 3. 

Within a 24 hour period the total crypto market capitalization increased by $300 billion and then quickly decreased by $350 billion.

Despite the euphoria-inducing price increase, many participants questioned the long-term effects of including tokens such as XRP, ADA, and SOL in the US government’s balance sheet.

Industry leaders including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Tyler Winklevoss both spoke out against the decision, claiming that the only proper choice for a reserve is Bitcoin.

Winklevoss said, “I have nothing against XRP, SOL, or ADA but I do not think they are suitable for a Strategic Reserve. Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar and that digital asset is bitcoin.”

Other participants carried a harsher tone.

“One of the better indicators to judge how legitimate a chain is by how many native stables they have issued from Circle, Tether, or Paxos. Both ADA and XRP have zero from major stablecoin issuers,” said onchain sleuth ZachXBT.

It is presumed that more information on the reserve and its structure will be shared at the first Crypto Summit which will be held at the White House on March 7. The summit and the reserve will be led by Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks, who has also found himself at the center of the reserve controversy.

Sachs, a former venture investor and member of the All-In podcast, was a seed investor in Solana via Multicoin Capital, and also an investor in Bitwise, which maintains exposure to all five reserve assets. Sacks said on social media that he sold all of his cryptocurrency prior to the start of the Trump administration, but some have been hesitant to trust his statement.