Crypto prices surged dramatically on Sunday evening (March 2nd). A social media post by Donald Trump triggered the market movement. The US president posted a message on his Truth Social platform about a crypto reserve and named three cryptocurrencies it includes: XRP, Solana, and Cardano.
Donald Trump’s social media post took the market by surprise. Trump has not commented on the crypto reserve in detail, as the president has had more critical topics on his agenda. He has issued one executive order in which Trump appointed a working group to study the viability of a crypto reserve and prepare crypto regulations.
Trump’s post sent crypto prices soaring. Naturally, XRP, Solana, and Cardano made the most significant gains. Cardano’s price was up more than 70 percent on Sunday evening!
The post immediately caused a great deal of irritation among Bitcoin maximalists. Is the long-awaited Bitcoin reserve a Cardano, XRP, and Solana reserve? The uproar also reached Trump’s ears, as the president posted the following post a bit later.
The impact of these posts lasted for a few hours. On Monday, crypto prices started to return to lower levels.
Many crypto investors are confused by yesterday’s events. Why did Trump decide to make such a post on Sunday? Liquidity is significantly thinner on weekends, so any major news will cause a maximum market reaction. Seems like the timing was no accident.
Even more important is to read Trump’s message with thought. What did the president say in the end? David Sacks, who holds the title of Crypto Czar, made a sort of damage control post on X.
President Trump has announced a Crypto Strategic Reserve consisting of Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies. This is consistent with his week-one E.O. 14178. President Trump is keeping his promise to make the U.S. the “Crypto Capital of the World.” More to come at the Summit.
— David Sacks (@davidsacks47) March 2, 2025
According to Sacks, Trump’s comment is in line with his previous executive order (EO 14178). In other words, Trump didn’t say anything he hadn’t already stated in his executive order. To put it even more bluntly, Trump’s post contained no new information.
If this is the case, why is the market reacting so violently? This is because Sacks’ comment is not entirely true. The president did not take a position on individual cryptocurrencies in the executive order, which also uses the term digital asset stockpile.
Crypto investors saw two things in Trump’s post:
- Trump promised that a crypto reserve would come
- Trump promised that the reserve will include XRP, Cardano, and Solana
The market wanted to believe this and did not wait for confirmation. Anyone who has followed Trump knows that he often makes comments about future actions that won’t be implemented in practice 100 % previously stated.
In practice, a task force set up by Trump will study different options and decide on a possible crypto reserve. Also, Trump cannot alone decide that the US government would buy Solana for hundreds of millions of dollars. Congress must also approve such a reserve.
What is our view on this? We have always believed that the crypto reserve would be created from crypto seized by the US government. This pool contains mainly bitcoins with dozens of other cryptocurrencies in smaller portions. This view does not contradict Trump’s post on Sunday, either.
The more significant news would be if the United States would purchase specific cryptocurrencies from the market in significant amounts. This is what the crypto market wants to believe after Sunday.
We can expect to gain more insight into the topic later this week. David Sacks will host the White House Crypto Summit on Friday. His post on X on Sunday included the phrase “More to come at the Summit.”
If David Sacks does not confirm that the United States will buy coins mentioned by Trump for the crypto reserve, there may be a “sell the news” event. It is entirely possible that Trump’s post does not fully reflect the views of the working group that he created earlier.
We will report more on the topic on Friday when we receive more detailed comments from the Crypto Czar, David Sacks.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons