Trump announces cryptocurrency reserve plan: 5 assets selected, but faces "advertising space" doubts, implementation method remains uncertain

Author: Weilin

On the evening of March 2, U.S. President Trump announced on Truth Social the asset categories for the cryptocurrency strategic reserve, including XRP, SOL, and ADA. He further added that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), as other valuable cryptocurrencies, would also become the core of the reserve.

Once this news was released, the cryptocurrency market quickly rebounded, with the five major currencies generally rising. As of 8 AM on March 3, the price of Bitcoin broke through $94,000, up 9.71% for the day.

Trump Announces 5 Assets for Cryptocurrency Reserve: BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, ADA

On March 2, against a backdrop of general market gloom, Trump suddenly released a statement on cryptocurrency reserves: "The U.S. cryptocurrency reserve will elevate this key industry after years of corrupt attacks from the Biden administration. That is why my digital asset executive order directs the presidential working group to advance a cryptocurrency strategic reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will ensure that America becomes the world’s crypto capital. We are making America great again!"

Subsequently, the crypto market received a significant boost. As of 8 AM on March 3, Bitcoin was priced at $94,338, up 9.71%; Ethereum was priced at $2,513, up 13.41%; Solana (SOL) rose to $178, up 24.35%; XRP increased to $2.91, up 33%; and Cardano (ADA) surged by 72.16%. Additionally, Trump's meme coin TRUMP also rose by 25.36%.

Trump had promised to establish a "Bitcoin Strategic National Reserve" at the Bitcoin conference held in Nashville in 2024. In his keynote speech, Trump told the audience: "If I am elected, my administration's policy will be to retain 100% of all Bitcoin currently held or acquired by the U.S. government."

On January 23 of this year, within his first week in office, Trump signed a cryptocurrency executive order directing the digital asset working group to study the feasibility of establishing a national crypto reserve and to explore a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

"President Trump announced the establishment of a cryptocurrency strategic reserve composed of Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies. This is consistent with the executive order 14178 he issued in his first week." David Sacks, head of AI and crypto affairs at the White House, wrote on platform X. He added, "More news will be released during the summit."

It is reported that President Trump will attend the first White House cryptocurrency summit and deliver a speech on March 7. Attendees will include well-known founders, CEOs, and investors from the cryptocurrency industry, as well as members of the presidential digital asset working group. The summit will be hosted by David Sacks and managed by working group executive director Bo Hines.

Diversifying into Multiple Assets, Is There "Interest Transfer"? Implementation Still Needs Clarification

Although the latest developments in the cryptocurrency strategic reserve have boosted the market, some industry insiders have raised questions about Trump's crypto reserve plan. In particular, the inclusion of ADA has sparked some unexpected reactions. According to @CryptoDoggyCN, in early February, ADA founder Charles Hoskinson hinted in a livestream that he would meet a big figure. On February 27, he posted that he could not attend ETHDenver and would go to Florida, where Trump's Mar-a-Lago is located. @CryptoDoggyCN believes that the inclusion of ADA may have been influenced by some lobbying.

Some influential figures in the tech and crypto industries criticized Trump's inclusion of cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin in the reserve. Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList, wrote: "U.S. taxpayers should not be 'bailing out' those nominally decentralized cryptocurrencies." He added, "If it has lobbyists, then it is not decentralized." Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, also wrote: "Good news: Strategic crypto reserves are in preparation; bad news: Lack of DeFi; ugly news: XRP, SOL, and ADA."

Alex Xu, research partner at Mint Ventures, analyzed that SOL, XRP, and ADA have been frequent visitors to Mar-a-Lago since Trump took office, providing Trump with many visible sponsorships, such as donations to the inauguration fund, etc. The likelihood of various covert interest transfers is probably even greater. Trump is also reciprocating by providing visible returns, arranging a "advertising space" within presidential authority. However, in the long run, projects like ADA and XRP can be used as reserve assets, and this absurd practice will only undermine the seriousness of the BTC strategic reserve itself, further reducing the likelihood of the BTC reserve bill passing at the federal level. It is one thing for the working group to advance the work; it is another for legislative success. The Republican advantage in the House is very slim, making it impossible to legislate SOL, ADA, and XRP into the national reserve. The only possibility is that Trump establishes a national sovereign fund directly under the Treasury through executive agencies, which would allow for direct purchases of these assets without federal legislation. But how likely is that? How much benefit would SOL, XRP, and ADA need to provide to Trump for the president to explicitly order the purchase of these with taxpayer money?

In addition, some industry insiders pointed out that in the past few months, when Trump mentioned related policies, the terms "reserve" and "stockpile" have been used interchangeably, but there are some key differences between them. Rebecca Rettig, chief legal officer at Jito Labs, stated: "To my understanding, stockpile means the government will hold the cryptocurrencies they accumulate through various cases, while reserves are ultimately what the Treasury decides to purchase and hold."

Analyst Jason Chen on platform X stated that a significant uncertainty in the bundled cryptocurrency strategic reserve plan is how the reserve will be completed. Following Trump's extremely self-serving business style, which has always adhered to the principle of getting something for nothing, it is hard to expect him to actually take money out of his pocket to buy and complete the reserve to "pump" the market. With the U.S. fiscal deficit reaching $1.83 trillion, the landlord's family has no surplus, so Trump will likely complete the reserve through means that do not require spending money, such as requiring the government to no longer sell BTC it holds, allowing cryptocurrency-related companies to use BTC for tax payments, or even proactively submitting through donations.

He mentioned that in the future, there may be reserves for APT, SUI, MOVE, etc. If no money is put out to complete the reserve, then the nature of this benefit is essentially equivalent to locking up assets, meaning that the funds flowing into the strategic reserve will not be sold for a long time, such as offsetting the previous concerns about the U.S. government crashing the market, rather than really having entities like BlackRock or MicroStrategy putting money in to pump the market.

Nevertheless, on March 3, former Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng expressed his observations on the current market on platform X, noting that the market is clearly dominated by "U.S. crypto assets" (US Coins), which have driven the development of crypto, and he is pleased to see any progress in cryptocurrency adoption, benefiting the industry as a whole and encouraging continued building.

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong mentioned on platform X regarding investment strategies: "I think investing only in Bitcoin might be the best choice—it's the simplest, and the logic behind it as the successor to gold is also very clear; if people want more diversified options, they can build a market-cap-weighted crypto asset index to maintain its neutrality. But the first option might be the simplest."

Currently, Trump's announcement of the five categories of cryptocurrency reserves has injected optimism into the market, but the implementation methods and specific effects still need time to be tested. The future market will further verify this, and we will closely monitor subsequent developments.