WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump on Sunday announced his government would create a national strategic crypto reserve that would include five cryptocurrencies, adding he would make the US “the crypto capital of the world”.
In a statement on his Truth Social network, Trump said a crypto working group, which was set up following his inauguration in January, is pressing forward with the reserve’s creation, fulfilling promises he first made to crypto lobbyists during his election campaign.
Following his Sunday announcement, values of the named currencies, including Bitcoin, soared, following what has been a weeks-long slump.
The move comes before a first-ever White House Crypto Summit on Friday and represents a considerable turnaround in US policy. Former President Joe Biden’s administration cracked down on the industry because of suspicions of fraudulent transactions. Trump himself was a crypto skeptic during his first term as president. At the time, he had called Bitcoin – the largest cryptocurrency – a “scam”.
In his Sunday announcement, though, Trump criticised the Biden-era policies, calling them “corrupt”.
Trump said a “crypto reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration…I will make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world. We are making America great again.”
What will the US crypto reserve include?
In his posts on Sunday, Trump initially mentioned that smaller currencies – XRP, Cardano, and Solana – would form part of the new national crypto stockpiles.
About an hour later, however, the president in a separate post said “and obviously, BTC and ETH…will be at the heart of the Reserve,” referring to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the top two cryptocurrencies by market value.
Markets immediately reacted favourably to the post with Cardano jumping about 60 percent to $1.25 from a previous $0.65, according to Coinbase crypto exchange – although by Monday it had again settled to about $0.97. Solana increased from about $150 to $170 and XRP jumped from $2.25 to $3, both currencies surging at rates of about 12 and 20 percent, respectively.
