Last Sunday, USA President Trump announced on Truth Social that his cryptocurrency task force would advance the "Cryptos Strategic Reserve," industry experts were surprised to find that XRP, ADA, and even SOL were included. These three cryptocurrencies are not universally accepted, even after Trump subsequently posted to reiterate that the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Bitcoin and Ethereum, would also be included.

Trump wrote, "The USA's cryptocurrency reserve will elevate this key industry after years of corrupt attacks from the Biden administration. I will ensure that the USA becomes the world's cryptocurrency capital."

In January, Trump signed an executive order to explore strategic digital assets reserve, which included language to assess the "potential creation" of a digital asset reserve. Later this week, he will host the first White House crypto summit and will speak to cryptocurrency founders, CEOs, and investors, which will be moderated by cryptocurrency czar David Sacks, with the operational responsibilities handled by Bo Hines, director of the Trump Digital Assets task force.

Although this news stimulated the market, with these five crypto assets rising between 10% and 70%. However, after Trump stated that the USA would stick to its position and impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, the crypto market reversed all of its gains from the boost in the past 8 hours.

Controversy

Despite the initial excitement in the market, this order faced strong criticism from insiders in the industry. Nic Carter, general partner of Castle Island Ventures, posted, "The government's role is not to run a fake cryptocurrency hedge fund or to pick winners and losers."

Harrison Seletsky, the Business Development Director of the digital identity platform SPACE ID, stated that it makes sense to incorporate Ethereum and Solana given their strong and growing developer activity. However, he pointed out that compared to Ethereum and Solana, XRP and ADA are virtually "ghost chains," with their total locked value and stability being insignificant compared to other ecosystem participants, at $0.8 billion and $460 million respectively.

Seletsky said, "In my opinion, this somewhat undermines the overall Concept of pillars of the crypto industry like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana." However, he noted that this further legitimizes digital assets in the eyes of both novice and institutional investors.

Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime Digital Assets, stated that XRP, ADA, and SOL are "essentially technology companies that just happen to have cryptocurrencies," that they are highly controlled, and that ownership is also highly centralized. These products constantly change and adapt to the market, whereas Bitcoin is a decentralized product with no single owner or controlling group, more akin to Gold.

Chris Chung, founder of the Solana exchange platform Titan, stated that the current question is whether we will see some real details about crypto legislation in the foreseeable future.

Chung said in a statement, "It is clear that the President of the USA is now the driving force behind the crypto market trends, and he is certainly favoring crypto tokens. I definitely think that the confidence vote from the US government could accelerate the approval of altcoin ETFs, including Solana, XRP, and other tokens waiting for a decision from the SEC."

Investment bank TD Cowen stated that this announcement lacks coordination, and CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott expressed the same view.

Scott said in an email, "The statement feels very unprofessional; it is almost a reflexive reaction to the crypto market undergoing a correction and Trump not wanting it to negatively affect him. It might purely be a political strategy to maintain the support of the crypto community for him."

Skepticism is not limited to the assets themselves but has raised broader concerns about the government's influence on the crypto market.

Jean Rausis, the co-founder of the decentralized finance ecosystem SMARDEX, stated, "The announcement that the USA Crypto Reserve will include XRP, SOL, and ADA clearly indicates that Trump is trying to inflate the value of his Hold Positions. He does not understand these Assets or the advantages of including them in the Global Strategy. It is evident that Bitcoin and Ethereum are more suitable for this, yet they were only mentioned later."

Bitcoin reserves make more sense.

Many Industry leaders believe that true strategic reserves should focus solely on Bitcoin. Their concerns highlight a greater divide between political motives and market fundamentals, with critics questioning whether the government's approach prioritizes appearances or practicality.

Hunter Horsely, CEO of Bitwise, Post said, "The strategic reserves I envision only include Bitcoin. To me, this is the most reasonable. Many Cryptos have their advantages, but we are not discussing the USA's investment portfolio here, we are discussing reserves, and Bitcoin is the undisputed store of value in the digital age."

Scott's company operates a Bitcoin Exchange, and he said, "Purchasing anything other than Bitcoin for Crypto reserves is 'meaningless.' Scott stated, 'No country would want to hold something that can be completely controlled by a single entity, especially a foreign entity. For people, this is a whole new way of thinking because Bitcoin is decentralized; it is not controlled by any company, country, entity, or individual, which makes it very meaningful for countries to establish strategic reserves.'"

In fact, the addition of XRP, ADA, and SOL seems to be because they are 'American.' The New York Post reported in January on the possibility that tokens established in the USA might be included in the 'America First' Crypto reserve.

Scott stated, "Can you imagine Russia purchasing XRP (which is entirely controlled by the American company Ripple) as a strategic reserve? If the USA imposes sanctions, they could completely freeze Russia's access to XRP."

Blume noted that this is a case where the goals of the Trump administration are out of touch with market realities.

Blume stated, "Although announcing a strategic reserve of assets is a very positive move for the market and the entire industry, it is best to limit it to Bitcoin. If reserves are conducted in their current form, it will be a mixed bag, disrupting investors' thoughts by supporting altcoins that lack Bitcoin's fundamentals."