On his Truth Social account, Donald Trump promised on Sunday, March 2 that the US was moving forward with the creation of a US "strategic reserve" in cryptocurrencies. An idea already mooted on several occasions since his election swing in favor of these assets in 2024, but for which the president has now given the first concrete details.
According to Trump, this US reserve will be made up of "valuable cryptocurrencies." Among them: XRP, SOL and ADA, mentioned in an initial message. Trump then added that "obviously" Bitcoin and Ethereum, the most well-known and listed cryptocurrencies, will also be part of this stockpile, but did not provide any details of how it would be structured, valued or managed by the US administration.
This didn't stop the value of these cryptocurrencies from temporarily soaring on March 2. While Bitcoin and Ethereum recovered between 10% and 15% after losing steam in recent weeks, it was mainly XRP, SOL and ADA that saw their prices rise by up to 60% on the main exchange platforms, before falling back significantly on Monday, March 3.
All three are among the most highly valued US cryptocurrency ventures. XRP is the token of a blockchain launched in 2013 by San Francisco-based Ripple, which develops banking exchange solutions. SOL is from the Solana blockchain, on which a highly speculative ecosystem of memecoins (cryptocurrencies based on a meme) essentially rests – and on which Donald and Melania Trump launched their own cryptocurrencies in January. While Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Cardano blockchain, on which ADA is traded, regularly claims to be working on fine-tuning the US regulatory framework in direct liaison with the Trump administration, of which he is a fervent supporter.
These signals of presidential attention come at a time when the sector was undergoing the beginnings of a rout and sharp correction. In recent weeks, US foreign policy, marked by trade wars and increasing geopolitical tensions, has fueled a climate of anxiety that has driven cryptoasset prices down. Bitcoin, for example, fell back below $80,000 on February 28, the first time this has happened since November. Speculators have also been stung by various high-profile failures, such as the catastrophic launch of Javier Milei's cryptocurrency in Argentina, and the theft of $1.5 billion from the Bybit platform.
But these problems don't seem to be affecting the White House: On February 28, we learned that the American president would be organizing his first "crypto summit" in Washington. Scheduled for March 7, the meeting is to bring together business leaders and investors from the sector, before whom Trump is expected to deliver a speech, according to the press release issued on X by David Sacks, the president's special adviser on AI and cryptocurrencies.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.