Trump's strategic crypto reserve does 'nothing for' U.S., critic says

Donald Trump's hastily announced plans for a "strategic crypto reserve" in the U.S. have attracted staunch criticism from Bitcoiners.

On Truth Social, the president declared that XRP, SOL and ADA would be included in this newly created stockpile, which will see digital assets held as an investment on behalf of taxpayers.

Bitcoin and Ether were initially absent, but Trump later confirmed they would be at "the heart of the reserve."

During last year's election campaign, he had promised that 200,000 BTC seized in criminal raids would never be sold. Industry hopes that this would happen swiftly were dashed when it was confirmed a crypto taskforce was "evaluating" the plans.

Sunday's post took the crypto markets by surprise, as evidenced by a sudden and swift rebound in the value of major altcoins.XRP has risen by 17% over the past 24 hours, with Solana up 14% and Cardano jumping 52% on the news.

Bitcoin and Ether's gains have been more muted by comparison, at 8% and 6% respectively.

Jon Rice, former editor-in-chief of Cointelegraph, told InvestorsObserver this announcement "does nothing for the United States."

He said: "It's a huge boon for Trump, who converted many of the proceeds of his scam memecoin into the assets he later designated as 'reserve assets' - thus extracting yet more value from the system."

Rice argued that XRP and ADA "have no objective value" as few developers are building on these networks.

"Crypto is not supposed to be a piggy-bank for politicians and other insider-trading. But with Trump now blatantly ignoring financial norms, the industry is set for yet another setback in its quest for legitimacy," he added.

Bitcoiners had been lobbying for this strategic reserve to be BTC-only, amid concerns about levels of centralization among these altcoins.

Fears about potential conflicts of interest have also emerged given Trump launched his own official memecoin before taking office, with the president having a financial stake in World Liberty Financial—a crypto company that's created a strategic token reserve of its own.

"It seems that Donald Trump and his allies see financial benefit in promoting certain crypto assets over others," Rice said. "This is precisely why politicians should never pick favorites in any industry, especially an industry in which they are now so deeply embedded."

He believes BTC "will shrug off the inclusion of these assets" in the long run.

"Bitcoin is probably decentralized and less subject to market manipulation than the other assets mentioned in Trump's announcement," Rice added.