President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will include handpicked cryptocurrency tokens in his “US Cryptocurrency Reserve,” but what that actually means, and whether it will actually happen, is almost as clear as muddy.
In a truth-social post, Trump instructed his advisors to “move forward” on creating a “crypto-strategic reserve,” saying it would include XRP, Solana and Cardano. In a follow-up post, he added that Bitcoin, Ethereum and “other valuable cryptocurrencies are at the heart of the reserve.”
Naturally, the announcement sent the crypto prices (which have been on a downward trend since Trump took office), which were shooting high on Sunday, especially among the names of certain token Trump. But some of the market enthusiasm disappeared on Monday as questions deepened about what Trump's announcement actually means and whether it would make sense.
The announcement also sparked a bell of alarm from people concerned about corruption and chronism. Not only did Trump seem to have proposed a government plan to support an industry where some of his top supporters have invested heavily, but he also called certain cryptocurrencies by name, including those lesser known.
How did he come up with that list exactly? And did he suggest using taxpayer money to enrich his allies, not just crypto-buying, but also by choosing favorites in the market?
Even some Trump fans weren't on the idea. “It's wrong to tax me on Crypto Bro Schemes,” libertarian venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale complained.
“No one has announced any tax or spending programs,” added David Sacks, White House advisor at AI and Crypto, who should quickly recover and “wait to find what's actually being proposed.”
However, what exactly is being proposed remains very unknown.
What is a “strategic crypto sanctuary”? It depends on who is talking about it.
The background here is that some crypto advocates have been pushing this idea for US crypto sanctuaries for some time now. It hopes that it will give the industry a sign of government approval and legitimacy that is often associated with speculation, money laundering, and of course, with prices squeezing.
One version of that proposal will be law enforcement agencies that simply hold the codes they seized from criminals, an idea Trump supported last July.
But another more ambitious and controversial version involves the government actually buying more cryptography itself, perhaps through the Federal Reserve.
Is Trump talking about one of them, the other, or something in between? And does he have what to do through executive action, not law?
Details remain scarce at the White House crypto summit on Friday.
The summit will be chaired by Sachs, a venture capitalist who was one of several key technicians in support of Trump in the middle of last year and close ally of Elon Musk.
Bag – Pure Online Presence – It was Round It was criticized This weekend, on social media, due to the recognition that he is steering crypto policy to enrich himself and his friends. Sacks is an early backer and a leading investor for Solana, and one of the lesser known cryptocurrencies Trump nominated to join the reserve.
Sachs said on social media on Sunday that he sold all his cryptocurrency holdings before he joined the administration.
However, the Financial Times reported that Sacks investment companies are still investing in several crypto startups. His White House ethics documents have not yet been made public.
