- Coins picked by Trump gave back some initial gains Monday
- Crypto experts are questioning the benefits of Trump stockpile
Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will include three lesser-known digital tokens in its strategic crypto reserve
was greeted with skepticism in the industry, with investors questioning the project’s merits and the coins he selected giving up some of their initial gains.
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 relief to an asset class fresh off its worst month since 2022. Yet the initial euphoria soon gave way to questions about everything from the feasibility of Trump’s plan to the motivations behind it. Crypto markets were back in the red on Monday, with XRP, SOL and ADA each suffering intraday declines of more than 10% after soaring the day before.
The February crypto rout had 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.”
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, disappointing investors and helping 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. Trump and his wife Melania launched memecoins on Solana in January. The president’s token is down about 80% from its all-time high of about $74, according to CoinGecko data. In February, Argentina’s President Javier Milei became embroiled in a political scandal after directing his followers to a Solana-based memecoin named Libra in a post on X. Launched in 2020, Solana was once closely associated with now-imprisoned entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and his trading firm Alameda Research. The price of SOL, its token, fell sharply after the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire in November 2022. It then rebounded in 2024 before hitting an all-time high of $295 on Jan. 19 — the same weekend that Trump debuted his memecoin. The token has since retreated 45% to trade at about $160.