With all the crypto friendly policies coming from the US lately, you’d think that the crypto market would be rallying like crazy, but well, it isn’t. The lackluster price action we’ve seen lately has many people wondering if things like Trump’s crypto reserve are actually bullish or if they’re just a big old nothingber. And that’s why today we’re going to do a deep dive into these announcements and tell you how they could affect the crypto market, if at all. My name is Nick. Let’s dive in. Now, before we dive into the specifics of the Bitcoin strategic reserve and what it could mean for Bitcoin, it’s important to quickly take stock of what Trump has managed to achieve so far. As it happens, Trump has already managed to fulfill a number of promises that he made during his campaign. Immediately after reclaiming his old office, Trump selected David Sachs to be the White House’s first ever crypto and AI ZAR. For those unaware, David is a member of the so-called PayPal mafia along with Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge. Trump then nominated pro- crypto individuals into key regulatory positions. These include selecting Paul Atkins as the chair of the SEC, Brian Quentes as chair of the CFTC, Travis Hill as chair of the FDIC, and Jonathan Gold as the chair of the OCC. And you can, of course, learn more about the pro crypto appointees by checking out our recent video right over here. Trump then followed through on a number of other promises, including the pardoning of Ross Ulrich on the 21st of January, the day after he was inaugurated. Not only that, but since Trump took office, the process of exposing and ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0 has been put into effect. This saw the FDIC release a whopping 790 pages exposing the calculated efforts of the regulators previous leadership to block the crypto industry from accessing banking services. Meanwhile, the OC has since said that it has a better grasp of the industry and has laid out guidance for crypto banking. Elsewhere, Senator Cynthia Lamus is again proposing the Bitcoin Act that was first introduced during Trump’s campaign last year, albeit with a few changes. These include allowing the government to potentially hold more than 1 million BTC, which was the soft limit previously set. Notably, the bill previously required that all cryptos forked from Bitcoin, such as Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin Gold, must also be held by the government for at least 5 years unless authorized by law to transfer or sell. The changes now add that the commerce secretary must evaluate the assets based on market cap and retain the dominant asset. Interesting to say the least. And more recently, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US stable coins act, aka the Genius Act, passed through the Senate’s Banking Committee with bipartisan support following Trump’s White House’s crypto summit, which we’ll come to in a second. Now, obviously, the announcement that really had lots of people talking were Trump’s signing of two executive orders related to the crypto industry. The first of these was signed on the 23rd of January, just 3 days after Trump took office. This executive order establishes quote an internal working group to make America the world capital in crypto. This group consists of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi, yet to be confirmed SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, and yet to be confirmed CFTC Chairman Brian Quintes, as well as members of Trump’s cabinet and other agency heads. Notably, the move also revokes a previous executive order set by former President Joe Biden, which labeled crypto as an inherent risk that needed to be managed through strict regulatory measures. Trump’s order also prohibited the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a CBDC and set out plans to create clear stable coin regulations. Then on the 7th of March, Trump signed a second executive order for crypto and this time establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a digital asset stockpile. This executive order temporarily took the crypto industry by storm. But the hype died down almost as quickly as it erupted. And this has everyone wondering what exactly it means for all of crypto. Before we get on to strategic Bitcoin reserve, this will initially be made up of the BTC previously seized by the US government and held by the US Treasury. David has said that the reserve will act as a quote digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency, specifying that it would be huddled indefinitely as a store of value. believe it or not, but this could actually happen. And that’s simply because of the opportunity cost that came with selling too early. As David explained, the US government has previously sold off around 195,000 BTC for a total of around 336 million. But if they had simply held on to it, this BTC would now be worth tens of billions of dollars. In addition to the US government holding its current stack of SATs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will work with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik to determine ways to add more BTC in the future without affecting the taxpayer. The Treasury will also work with other federal agencies to evaluate their legal authority to transfer any BTC they own into the reserve. Meanwhile, when it comes to the digital asset stockpile, which consists entirely of altcoins, things work a little differently. Like the strategic Bitcoin reserve, the digital asset stockpile will consist of crypto that was previously seized from illicit activity. Note that this was pretty obvious in retrospect. It was literally specified in the first executive order about crypto that Trump signed back in January. Unlike the strategic Bitcoin reserve, however, there are no plans to add to the digital asset stockpile with the only exception being any altcoins seized from illicit activities in the future. David has said that the purpose of this digital asset stockpile is for quote responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department. To be blunt, this basically means that the government is slapping a fancy label on the crypto it’s already held for a while in order to bring it under its regulatory jurisdiction. In other words, the digital asset stockpile is just meant to increase the legitimacy of the crypto industry. It’s also important to note that the government is open to the idea of selling these altcoins in the future. Come to think of it, this would be an easy way to fund those extra BTC purchases we mentioned a moment ago. Now, as you may have heard, Trump caused a bit of confusion when he declared the digital assets stockpile. And that’s because on the 3rd of March, just days before signing the executive order, Trump posted on his truth social platform that the reserve would include XRP, Soul, and ADA. He later added that ETH and BTC would be quote the heart of the reserve. However, David Saxs was asked about this in an interview shortly after to which he replied that all Trump was doing was reeling off a list of the top altcoins by market cap and that people were reading too much into it. This is eyeopening as it’s possible that the US government doesn’t even currently hold any of these cryptos. The crazy thing is that nobody knows for sure. Sax revealed that there’s never been a complete audit of the US government’s crypto stash and noted that the executive order calls for such an audit to take place. So until that audit is complete, nobody knows exactly which altcoins will be included in the US’s digital asset stockpile. That said though, there is a way to get a feel for what could be included. According to Arkham Intelligence, the US government holds around $17.1 billion worth of crypto at the time of shooting. $16.7 billion of that is made up of 198,100 BTC with roughly half a billion in other digital assets. At this point in time, this includes 122 million in USDT, more than 60,000 ETH worth around 117 million, 750 wrapped BTC worth around 63 million, and over 40,000 BNB worth around 24 million among others. Of course, it goes without saying that this won’t be the full list of what’s been included in the digital asset stockpile, but it does give us a bit of a glimpse into what the government holds nonetheless. From our perspective, there’s no reason why these cryptos wouldn’t be part of the reserve. Now, following the executive order about the crypto reserves, Trump hosted the first ever crypto summit at the White House where he addressed several plans to foster crypto innovation in the US. The round table included cryptozar David Saxs, commerce secretary Howard Lutnik and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as well as the heads of the regulatory agencies like SEC crypto task force head Ha Pierce and CFTC acting chair Carolyn Fam. Other notable attendees included crypto industry figureheads like strategies Michael Sailor and Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong to name just but a few. It should come as no surprise then that crypto investors everywhere were waiting with baited breath in anticipation of what could be announced. The only problem is that the summit featured a lot of talking without anything new really being said. Trump did highlight a number of mistakes the previous administration had made towards crypto, including paying particular attention to operation choke point 2.0, 0 which he said the Treasury and Commerce departments were working with the OC to shut down for good. Trump also clarified that the US government would not sell any of its Bitcoin under his watch, which we are sure made Michael Sailor a very happy man. The president also reiterated that the BTC being hodddled would form part of the Bitcoin strategic reserve according to the executive order he’d signed shortly beforehand. He then confirmed that the new digital assets stockpile would be created from assets other than Bitcoin and explained that he had ordered the Treasury and Commerce Department to provide new ways for the government to acquire more Bitcoin without spending any taxpayer dollars. There are a few ways in which this Bitcoin could be accumulated that are budgetneutral and I actually listed a few of these in a tweet right over here which will also be linked to down below. But these are things like using the funds from the exchange stabilization fund, selling gold reserves, a sovereign wealth fund, etc., etc. Anywh who, if this summit all feels like a bit of a repetition to you, that’s because it is. The crypto summit essentially turned out to be a recap of moves that Trump’s team has previously already put into action. And this is precisely why the market failed to pump on any of the announcements. In fact, it actually took a bit of a slight dip as investors felt entirely underwhelmed. And um to be blunt, it’s not hard to see why. However, there was one key standout that seems to have fallen off everyone’s radar from the summit, and that was Scott Bessant underscoring plans to use stable coins to ensure that the US dollar maintains its global dominance. This is extremely significant because it suggests that stable coins could in fact become widely adopted for payments in the US to the point that they become the de facto digital dollar and this would be a huge leap for crypto adoption in the states and indeed the rest of the world as a result. So then that brings us up to speed with everything Trump had announced so far. And that leaves us with the question we asked in the introduction. Is this really bullish or are we looking at one big nothing burger? Well, there’s no denying that price action in the market has been very much uh meh. And it’s likely because these announcements were already priced in. Put simply, crypto investors have been anticipating Trump’s pro- crypto stance ever since he announced himself as an ally of the crypto industry during his election campaign. This is likely why the charts are looking a little flat lately. However, this can also be taken as a bullish signal in itself and that’s because we could have easily seen crypto prices taking a huge retracement after the White House summit as investors sold the news. Instead though, the market has shown some resilience, optimism, dare I say. The reason for this is simple. While there may be uncertainty around things like the so-called trade war fueled by Trump’s tariffs, ultimately this doesn’t change the long-term picture, which remains incredibly bullish. The regulatory landscape in the US is shaping up to be more pro- crypto than ever before. With crypto innovation being actively encouraged, the strategic reserve announcements also have a direct impact on BTC’s future supply. Trump’s no sell policy means that any future selling from the US government is theoretically gone for the foreseeable future. The reserve also adds an additional layer of legitimacy since the US endorsed BTC as a strategic asset. This could help institutions feel more comfortable investing in crypto, especially Bitcoin, as it’s clearly identified as a unique crypto asset by these recent announcements. These announcements could also encourage other countries to follow in the US’s footsteps by holding their SATs as a strategic reserve. This could foreshadow Bitcoin’s further integration into the global financial system, and it’s likely that other cryptos would eventually follow suit in this regard. That said, more clarity is definitely needed, especially when it comes to the digital asset stockpile made up of altcoins. Not only is it unclear which altcoins are to be in this stockpile, but it also seems that the government isn’t entirely sure what to do with them. Clarity around this simple fact could be a bullish catalyst for altcoins in general. Imagine a scenario where the US government discovers it’s holding large amounts of Soul, XRP, and other top altcoins that it just never bothered accounting for and then declares that these assets will be held like BTC. That would definitely be bullish and would likewise inspire other investors to do the same. So, while things may be looking grim in the short term, as we get towards the horizon, all signs point to an eventual glorious sunrise. Now, if you enjoyed that video, then you have to check out our video right over here on global strategic Bitcoin reserves as well. And if you’re not subscribed to next time.
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