Trump's Plans for a Strategic Crypto Reserve Ignite Skepticism

Euphoria in digital-asset markets stemming from Donald Trump's plans for a strategic crypto reserve turned to skepticism on Monday

Donald Trump’s plans for a strategic crypto reserve sparked enthusiasm in digital-asset markets but quickly soured on Monday, triggering early losses in cryptocurrencies that worsened throughout the day.

Investors also grew more pessimistic about a US-led trade deal to avert a 25 per cent tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods, and the tech-stock-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid more than 2 per cent.

Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that the XRP, SOL and ADA tokens will be included in the reserve, along with Bitcoin and Ether. The news ignited an immediate crypto rally, offering some relief to an asset class fresh off its worst month since 2022. Yet the inclusion of the three lesser-known digital tokens was later met with questions from investors about the project’s merits.

All of the cryptocurrencies that Trump said would be included in the reserve posted sharp declines by late afternoon in New York amid a broad retreat in risk assets. Most of Sunday’s gains in the tokens were wiped out.

The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index slumped almost 28 per cent in February. The rout put pressure on Trump, who returned to the White House after the industry showered him with campaign donations and praise. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission’s reversal of a years-long crackdown had failed to stem the selloff, which many attributed in part to nervousness about Trump’s trade tariffs and dramatic moves to gut government programs.

“For a president who thrives on being the market’s hero, last week’s risk asset performance was anything but inspiring,” QCP Capital said in a note on Monday. “The political calculus was clear — Trump needed a win before his approval ratings start slipping, a metric he likely takes very personally.”

Bitcoin was almost 9 per cent lower as of 3:20 p.m. in New York, trading near $86,000, while Ether lost about 16 per cent. XRP sank 18 per cent after rallying 32% on Sunday, while SOL and ADA slipped about 19 per cent each. Crypto prices fell to their lows of the day after Trump said in the White House that there was “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to negotiate with the US to win a reprieve from 25 per cent tariffs scheduled to take effect on Tuesday.

In its first statement about creating a crypto reserve in January, the White House said such a stockpile would be “potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.” Bitcoin tends to be the main crypto token seized by law enforcement agencies, including in the bust of the notorious Silk Road website.

The initial announcement contained little detail on how the reserve would be created, which disappointed investors and helped set the stage for February’s selloff.

Trump’s Sunday posts came just as his crypto czar David Sacks prepares to host the White House’s first industry summit. On Monday, Sacks took to the X platform to announce that he sold all his cryptocurrency holdings — including Bitcoin, Ether and SOL — before Trump’s administration took over in January.

XRP is the cryptocurrency associated with Ripple Labs Inc., the company run by Brad Garlinghouse. SOL and ADA are the native tokens of the Solana and Cardano blockchains. Below is a summary of the tokens and the people they’re linked to.

XRP

Trump in February shared a CoinDesk story about Garlinghouse on Truth Social, drawing both cheers from fans of XRP — Ripple’s native token — and grumbling among other crypto executives.

Garlinghouse had said in December that the company planned to donate $5 million worth of XRP to Trump’s inauguration festivities. He and Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stu Alderoty, have been photographed dining with the President at Mar-a-Lago.

That level of political access represents a stark reversal of fortunes for the San Francisco-based company, which was sued in 2020 by the SEC and accused of offering unregistered securities. A US district court later found that XRP was a security when sold to institutional investors but not when sold to retail investors, which was seen as a win in the crypto industry. The SEC appealed that ruling. While the SEC has dropped many crypto enforcement actions, the Ripple appeal has not yet been abandoned.

Founded in 2012 and originally named Opencoin, Ripple was one of the earlier companies to begin developing distributed ledger technology for mainstream financial services. It created its own platform with the goal of speeding up and cutting the cost of settling international payments.

Like many other blockchain startups targeting traditional financial-services flows, it has had mixed results, with banks being slow to adopt the technology.

Solana

Solana is the blockchain of choice for issuers of so-called memecoins, digital assets with little intrinsic value that can nevertheless balloon in value if they’re able to capture the attention of