Which cryptocurrencies does Trump push to be included in the US national digital asset reserve?

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to set up a working group dedicated to studying digital assets. One of the tasks is to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a national digital asset reserve. Against this background, it has attracted much attention on which cryptocurrencies will be included.

Late at night on March 2, Trump said XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) will be included in the U.S. cryptocurrency reserves. As soon as this news came out, Ripple (XRP) broke through US$2.55 per coin, up more than 20% during the day; Solana (SOL) once broke through US$160 per coin, up about 10% during the day; ADA (ADA) rose nearly 30% during the day. These cryptocurrencies are selected, or due to their own unique advantages.

Ripple (XRP) is issued by Ripple and aims to solve the pain points of global cross-border payments. Its transaction speed is fast, can process a large number of transactions per second, and has low handling fees. In the cross-border remittance scenario, it can significantly shorten the arrival time of funds and reduce costs, which is attractive to US financial institutions in expanding global payment business, and may be one of the reasons for inclusion in reserves.

Solana (SOL) is known for its high-performance public chains, with high throughput and low latency features. Its unique historical proof (PoH) consensus mechanism enables blockchain to eliminate the need for frequent communication and confirmation between a large number of nodes when processing transactions, improving efficiency. For the development of the US crypto industry, such an efficient public chain can carry more innovative applications and promote industry progress, thus entering the reserve list.

ADA is published by Cardano blockchain platform, emphasizing academic research-driven and sustainable development. The platform focuses on compliance when designing, and adopts a hierarchical architecture for functions such as smart contracts to ensure security and scalability. Against the backdrop of increasingly strict cryptocurrency regulation, Aida's compliance and sustainable development concepts are in line with the United States' requirements for long-term stability of assets in building a digital asset reserve system.

Subsequently, Trump issued another message saying: "Obviously, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as other valuable cryptocurrencies will become the core of the reserves." Bitcoin, as the world's largest cryptocurrency, has become an iconic existence in the cryptocurrency field since its birth in 2009. Its total of 21 million pieces is constant, with decentralization and anonymity, and is regarded as "digital gold" by some investors. It can circulate freely around the world and is not controlled by a single country or institution. Bitcoin is often used as a safe-haven asset during times of global economic instability, a feature that makes it a strong candidate for the core of the US digital asset reserves.

Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency with market value. It is not only a digital currency, but also an open source public blockchain platform with smart contract functions. Developers can create and deploy various decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum, covering multiple fields such as finance, gaming, and social networking. Ethereum's smart contract function has promoted the widespread application of blockchain technology and is crucial to the development of the crypto ecosystem, which is also an important reason why it is regarded by Trump as the core of the reserve.

Judging from the market reaction, the cryptocurrency market fluctuated violently after the relevant news was announced. Bitcoin price once rose by $10,000 to $95,000; Ethereum once rose by about 13% to above $2,500; Ripple once soared by 33%, Solana jumped by 22%, and Ada gained by more than 60%. The total cryptocurrency market rose by about 10%, or more than $300 billion, within hours of Trump's announcement, according to cryptocurrency data and analytics company CoinGecko. This shows that the market highly recognizes Trump's move to include these cryptocurrencies in the national digital asset reserves, believing that this will have a positive impact on the crypto industry.

Trump's push to include these cryptocurrencies in the U.S. national digital asset reserves, in sharp contrast to the Biden administration's suppression of digital assets. During Trump's campaign, he expressed support for establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States and vowed to build the United States into a "cryptocurrency capital." Under its leadership, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdraws investigations into several cryptocurrency companies and dismisses lawsuits against Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. This policy shift shows the Trump administration's emphasis on the development of the crypto industry, hoping to enhance the competitiveness of the United States in the global crypto economy by building a digital asset reserve system and promote innovation and development of the crypto industry.

However, the cryptocurrency market itself has high uncertainty and risk. Its price fluctuations are affected by a variety of factors, such as macroeconomic situation, changes in regulatory policies, technological development, market sentiment, etc. For example, the outbreak of the largest theft in the history of the currency circle, such as the world's second largest cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit was hacked on February 21, resulting in the transfer of more than 400,000 cryptocurrencies with total assets worth more than US$1.5 billion. Such incidents will trigger market panic and lead to a sharp drop in the price of cryptocurrencies. In addition, the price of Bitcoin is also synchronized with the decline in risky assets, affected by investors' expectations for the macro and technology stocks of the United States. The recent pullback in Bitcoin prices is related to the major adjustments in the AI narrative caused by Deepseek in the US stock market, which has led to the revaluation of the value of related technology stocks, and the chain reaction has affected the digital currency market. At the same time, the Fed's concerns about inflation have made hopes of further interest rate cuts slim, and the market's pessimism about the liquidity outlook has exacerbated the selling pressure on crypto assets such as Bitcoin.

Despite the risks, U.S. regulatory filings show hedge funds are still the main buyers of cryptocurrencies, and banks and sovereign wealth funds are also involved in the purchase. Asset Management added configurations to U.S. ETFs pegged to the spot price of Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2024. This shows that even if the market fluctuates violently, cryptocurrencies still have certain investment attractiveness, and some institutional investors are optimistic about their long-term development potential. Trump's move to include multiple cryptocurrencies in the national digital asset reserves will undoubtedly have an impact on the confidence of market participants, prompting more institutions and investors to re-examine cryptocurrency investment strategies. For the US crypto industry, if this measure can be successfully implemented, it is expected to provide a more stable policy environment for the development of the industry, attract global crypto asset-related companies and talents to gather in the United States, and promote the United States to take a leading position in the field of digital asset innovation. But at the same time, how to balance the development of cryptocurrency with financial stability and consumer protection will also be challenges faced by the Trump administration in the subsequent process of promoting the construction of the digital asset reserve system.