The U.S. Is Boldly Moving Ahead With Its Plans to Establish a Crypto Strategic Reserve

However, the tokens named by President Donald Trump for inclusion in the reserve have prompted a curious response from the heads of two major U.S. crypto exchanges.

The U.S. is boldly moving ahead with its plans to establish a crypto strategic reserve. However, the tokens named by President Donald Trump for inclusion in the reserve have prompted a curious response from the heads of two major U.S. crypto exchanges.

Specifically, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have stated that Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) are unsuitable as reserve assets.

Bitcoin First, Bitcoin Only

In response to Donald Trump and U.S. Crypto Czar David Sacks’ announcement, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that he’s “still forming an opinion on asset allocation.”

However, for now, he posits that “just Bitcoin” would be the simplest solution and that the “successor to gold” is an easier story to sell.

According to Cameron Winklevoss, who is “excited ” about the reserve, there is just one asset that “meets the bar as a store of value reserve asset,” namely Bitcoin.

Equating BTC to gold and ETH to oil, he claims that the addition of Ethereum could mirror America’s physical gold and oil reserves.

“It’s possible other assets could make the grade in the future but it’s a very high bar.”

Cameron Winklevoss additionally suggested that the government acquire altcoins through “seizure, forfeiture, etc.” rather than purchasing them directly from the open market.

Echoing this, Tyler Winklevooss explains that he has no problem with SOL, XRP, or ADA but doesn’t think they’re “suitable” as reserve assets.

Meeting the ‘Bar’

In response, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson took issue with the comments from Tyler Winklevoss, posting to X writing :

“Notice how they never tell you what the threshold is?”

In addition, Eli Nagar, CEO of the Bitcoin mining pool platform Braiins, posted to X, taking issue with Trump’s altcoin selections.

He notes that ETH’s proof-of-stake (PoS) “cartel” makes ETH “easy to censor.”

With XRP, he claims that since Ripple controls the supply, it can dump tokens whenever it wants.

On Solana, Nagar oddly writes, "SOL > shuts down, insiders hold most." Perhaps this suggests that SOL devs could pull the plug on the network and rug the entire ecosystem.

Finally, he posits that the Cardano Foundation “calls the shots,” not the users.

Hoskinson had one simple response: