America’s crypto stockpile will hold more than bitcoin — it’ll be a multi-crypto national strategic reserve

The much-touted crypto reserve is starting to take more shape, with President Trump announcing on Truth Social that it will include five assets late Sunday afternoon — a surprise to many insiders. In addition to bitcoin and ethereum, Trump said the reserve will include XRP, Solana, and cardano. All the assets skyrocketed on the news, reversing last week’s tumble, with cardano jumping the most, up 50% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

“For bitcoin purists, this will come as a mixed bag — the long-awaited reserve now being made real, but twinged with disappointment that many other assets are included as well,” Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime, said.

Also of note is that Trump’s eponymous meme coin, trump, is on the solana blockchain. Solana, which has been struggling, was down 28% in the past month, but ended February on a positive note as CME Group announced it will be offering futures on the asset. Following the announcement, it has shot up 16%, CoinGecko data shows.

Including assets beyond bitcoin in the reserve has upset some.

“XRP and cardano don’t belong in the US crypto reserve. They’re both ghost chains with little to show in terms of on-chain activity, unlike ethereum or solana,” Harrison Seletsky, director of business development at digital identity platform SPACE ID, told Sherwood News. “It would be like if the G7 countries decided to add another country to the list and chose Zimbabwe. Yes, it’s a country, but it’s not even close in caliber.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted that “just Bitcoin would probably be the best option.”

The devil is in the details

Unlike Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ extremely detailed proposal introduced in July, Trump’s bare-bones reserve announcement leaves many questions in the air. Lummis, recently named chair of the Senate panel on digital assets, has yet to chime in on the announcement. 

Under Lummis’ BITCOIN Act (aka the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act), the government would acquire 1 million bitcoin by purchasing up to 200,000 coins annually over five years.

It’s unclear how Trump’s new plan would be executed or what the allocation distribution would look like in the reserve.  There is also a legal question around whether the government can retain the crypto assets it’s seized for the reserve. The US government holds 198,000 bitcoin worth about $18.5 billion, according to Arkham Intel data.

Andrew O’Neill, digital assets managing director at S&P Global Ratings, said that in addition to the proposal lacking details on size and timing, it doesn’t specify whether it will be managed by the Federal Reserve or a new entity.

“The January 23 executive order only initiates the exploration of a digital asset reserve, with recommendations to follow,” O’Neill said.

Additional details or more clarity might emerge at the first White House Crypto Summit on March 7, as Trump’s “Crypto Czar” David Sacks teased on X, saying, “More to come.”

Sacks added that “attendees will include prominent founders, CEOs, and investors from the crypto industry.”

Alan Orwick, cofounder of Quai Network, noted the news dropped at the exact moment when many investors were questioning if the bull market was over.

“It looks like policymakers are doing everything they can to turn around the past month of negative price action,” Orwick said. “Next question is whether this strategic reserve rally sustains itself with actual adoption or is quickly killed by an overall bleak macro environment.”