Most cryptocurrencies from the top 10 by capitalization reacted by falling.
Promised not enough
On March 7, during a summit, Donald Trump declared that the previous administration’s ”war” on digital assets was over and emphasized his intention to make the U.S. the ”cryptocurrency capital of the world.”
The day before, the president signed an executive order creating a bitcoin reserve to hold assets seized by the Treasury Department in criminal and civil cases. It is forbidden to sell coins from the fund.
”It’s a digital Fort Knox for digital gold inside the U.S. Treasury,” Trump described the initiative as he opened the event.
A separate vault will be created for altcoins, where confiscated assets will also go. They will be able to sell them on the market only in exceptional cases, if deemed necessary by the Ministry of Finance. Direct purchase of assets is not envisaged.
The president condemned the sale of bitcoins by Gov. Joe Biden and promised it would not happen again.
”From this day forward, the U.S. will follow the rule well known to every bitcoiner – never sell your bitcoins,” Trump said, adding that he himself was unsure if that was the right approach.
He noted that government agencies will ”explore opportunities to purchase additional BTC for the reserve,” provided it’s not taxpayer money being spent on it.
Trump also promised to end Operation Chokepoint 2.0, an initiative to limit crypto businesses’ access to traditional banking:
”Regulators have forced banks to close the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking some money transfers. […] This will all be over soon, we are finalizing Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”
By August 2025, the president hopes to sign legislation to dollarize stablecoins.
”[Lawmakers] are working very hard on this. It’s a tremendous opportunity for economic growth and innovation in our financial sector, and it’s really going to make a big difference,” he said.
Disappointment in the market
The lack of specificity among the announced plans of the government, especially regarding the national cryptocurrency reserve, had a negative impact on many assets.
Over the past 24 hours, the total market capitalization has fallen 5% to $2.92 trillion.
Bitcoin has fallen in price by 3.5%. At the time of writing, the price is around $85,900 with a capitalization of $1.71 trillion.
Ethereum price fell 3% to $2100 with a capitalization of $257 billion.
The top contenders for inclusion in the U.S. national cryptocurrency reserve among altcoins – XRP, SOL and ADA – sagged 8.4%, 4.2% and 9.2%, respectively.
Positive outlook
Despite the negative effect of the summit in the short term, in the end the impact of the authorities’ new approach on the crypto industry will be positive, experts believe.
”Prioritizing bitcoin as a reserve asset in the U.S. not only legitimizes its status as ‘digital gold,’ but also sets a precedent that could accelerate the development of a regulatory framework and drive institutional adoption globally,” noted Vincent Chock, CEO of First Digital, in a commentary for CoinDesk.
He believes this ”trust” in cryptocurrencies by the federal government could inspire institutions to move to blockchain, leading to an influx of liquidity into DeFi and increased interest in other digital assets like stablecoins.
Bitwise Investment Director Matt Hougan believes that implementing a national digital asset reserve reduces the likelihood of bitcoin being banned by the government and makes the cryptocurrency more legitimate in the eyes of investors and regulators.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is confident that this will ”give a new impetus to the legalization of digital gold,” and the G20 member countries will follow the example of the United States.
In March, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey reported that China is working hard to create its own strategic bitcoin reserve.
This article was originally Posted on Coinpaper.com
