Donald Trump Reveals the Cryptocurrencies the U.S. Is Betting On, Sparking Market Mayhem

Bitcoin and crypto prices—including ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, solana’s SOL and cardano’s ADA—have flat-lined over the last week

The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, solana and cardano, have flat-lined after Donald Trump revealed the cryptocurrencies that the U.S. is betting on and the methods it will use to acquire more.

Now, Elon Musk has issued a surprise crypto price warning.

President Donald Trump is planning to make the U.S. the world's bitcoin superpower and crypto capital, according to remarks he made at a White House summit this week.

“We’re going to move the [cryptocurrency owned by the U.S. government] to the digital stockpile,” David Sacks, a technology investor and entrepreneur who has joined the Trump administration as artificial intelligence and crypto czar, said on the All In Podcast he cohosted before taking the job.

“The purpose of the stockpile is responsible stewardship, it’s a place for safekeeping, it’s a centralized account under the direction of the secretary of the Treasury and the secretary of the Treasury will figure out how to maximize the value of these holdings.”

The bitcoin price has dropped to $80,000 per bitcoin over night before rebounding slightly but fresh fears have emerged that bitcoin could be headed to around $70,000—at which point things “will be violent,” according to BitMex founder and crypto investor Arthur Hayes.

“With bitcoin dipping below $80,000, approximately 70% of all selling came from investors who bought within the last three months, highlighting the dominance of recent entrants panic-selling into the decline,” Markus Thielen, the chief executive of market advisory company 10x Research, said in an emailed note.

The rest of the crypto top ten have followed bitcoin lower, with ethereum hitting $2,000 for the first time since late 2023. Ethereum rival solana and the meme-based dogecoin are leading the market lower, each down around 6%.

“In the short-term, expect bitcoin to drop as low as $72,000 and ethereum to hit $1,600 while the administration seeks to control inflation,” Zach Burks, the chief executive of non-fungible token (NFT) service provider Mintology, said in emailed comments.

“Many investors are pulling out of bitcoin, viewing it as a risky asset class for the first time since Trump took the White House. It’s no longer playing its role as a store of value—gold prices have spiked as many go back to the original ‘doomsday asset,’ which is no surprise as tariffs and grenades continue to get thrown across the free world.”

This week, after Trump’s surprise announcement that Ripple’s XRP, solana and cardano would form the basis of a U.S. crypto reserve, the White House has shuffled its plans to create a bitcoin-only strategic reserve alongside a crypto stockpile made up of smaller cryptocurrencies including ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, cardano and solana.

"The crypto stockpile should be subject to good portfolio management and fortunately we have a secretary of the Treasury who is an extremely successful former hedge fund manager so he’s going to figure out the best way to manage these assets and we give him the flexibility to do portfolio management," Sacks said.

Speaking at the much-hyped White House crypto summit this week, alongside Sacks and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, Trump confirmed his commitment to bitcoin—placing it in a unique position above other cryptocurrencies in a reserve described as a “digital Fort Knox” in a reference to the U.S. gold reserve.

“I promised to make America the bitcoin superpower of the world and the crypto capital of the planet,” Trump said, it was reported by the New York Times. “We’re taking historic action to deliver on that promise.”

In July, then Republican candidate Donald Trump promised to create a "strategic national bitcoin reserve" and predicted bitcoin could eclipse gold’s nearly $20 trillion market capitalization during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

During Friday’s White House summit, Trump also called it "foolish" of the government to have previously sold so much of its seized bitcoin, while Sacks, speaking on the podcast, claimed the U.S. might have lost as much as $16 billion by selling off its bitcoin.

"At one point in time, we had about 400,000 bitcoin on the federal balance sheet. We sold roughly half of that for something like $360 million total," Sacks said during the podcast. "If we had held all of that, just that the portion we sold would be worth over $17 billion."

Ahead of the summit, Trump signed an executive order calling for the creation of the bitcoin reserve and crypto stockpile using existing government holdings, disappointing traders with a lack of commitment to new bitcoin and crypto purchases though leaving the door open to acquiring more bitcoin though “budget neutral” methods