President Donald Trump has announced the creation of a U.S. strategic cryptocurrency reserve.
The president’s announcement Sunday (March 2) caused a rally in crypto prices, which had been on a downward trend following recent record highs.
According to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the reserve could include bitcoin and ether as well as XRP, Solana’s SOL coin and Cardano’s ADA.
“A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA,” the president wrote. “I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.”
“And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve,” Trump added in a later post. “I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!”
As covered here last week, crypto markets had lost more than $800 billion in recent weeks, as enthusiasm within the sector that came with Trump’s election victory has faded. A report by the Financial Times said some of this decline is down to frustration among traders with Trump’s speed at following through on some of the campaign promises he made to the cryptocurrency industry.
“The slower than anticipated rollout of any major pro-crypto policies has led to disappointment,” said Gadi Chait, investment manager at Xapo Bank.
Trump’s election has ushered in a change in regulatory policy toward crypto, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) either pausing or withdrawing cases against some of the industry’s biggest names.
For example, the commission last week dismissed its pending civil enforcement action against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and said it is trying to reform its regulatory approach to the crypto industry. The SEC had taken legal action against Coinbase in June 2023, alleging that the company violated securities laws.
Also last week, Robinhood Markets said it got a letter from the commission informing the company that the regulator had concluded its investigation into Robinhood’s cryptocurrency business and had no plans to take enforcement action.
Trump’s announcement comes ahead of a planned crypto summit at the White House on March 7. A report by CNBC noted that this is the first Trump has specified his support for a crypto “reserve” and not a “stockpile.”
The former, that report said, assumes active, regular purchases of crypto, while a stockpile would just not sell any of the crypto the government holds.
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