Bitcoin and crypto prices—including ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, solana’s SOL and cardano’s ADA—have flat-lined over the last week after Donald Trump revealed the cryptocurrencies that the U.S. was betting on, sparking market mayhem.
The bitcoin price has fallen back to around $85,000 per bitcoin, exactly where it was at the beginning of March (despite China quietly priming the bitcoin price for a major earthquake).
Now, as Elon Musk issues a surprise crypto price warning, Donald Trump’s crypto czar has said the U.S. Treasury will be working to “maximize the value” of the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies held by the U.S. in its reserve and crypto stockpile.
Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run
“We’re going to move the [cryptocurrency owned by the U.S. government] to the digital stockpile,” David Sacks, a technology investor and entrepreneur who has joined the Trump administration as artificial intelligence and crypto czar, said on the All In Podcast he cohosted before taking the job.
“The purpose of the stockpile is responsible stewardship, it’s a place for safekeeping, it’s a centralized account under the direction of the secretary of the Treasury and the secretary of the Treasury will figure out how to maximize the value of these holdings.”
This week, after Trump’s surprise announcement that Ripple’s XRP, solana and cardano would form the basis of a U.S. crypto reserve, the White House has shuffled its plans to create a bitcoin-only strategic reserve alongside a crypto stockpile made up of smaller cryptocurrencies including ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, cardano and solana.
“The crypto stockpile should be subject to good portfolio management and fortunately we have a secretary of the Treasury who is an extremely successful former hedge
fund manager so he’s going to figure out the best way to manage these assets and
we give him the flexibility to do portfolio management,” Sacks said.
Speaking at the much-hyped White House crypto summit this week, alongside Sacks and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, Trump confirmed his commitment to bitcoin—placing it in a unique position above other cryptocurrencies in a reserve described as a “digital Fort Knox” in a reference to the U.S. gold reserve.
“I promised to make America the bitcoin superpower of the world and the crypto capital of the planet,” Trump said, it was reported by the New York Times. “We’re taking historic action to deliver on that promise.”
In July, then Republican candidate Donald Trump promised to create a “strategic national bitcoin reserve” and predicted bitcoin could eclipse gold’s near-$20 trillion market capitalization during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
During Friday’s White House summit, Trump also called it “foolish” of the government to have previously sold so much of its seized bitcoin, while Sacks, speaking on the podcast, claimed the U.S. might have lost as much as $16 billion by selling off its bitcoin.
“At one point in time, we had about 400,000 bitcoin on the federal balance sheet. We sold roughly half of that for something like $360 million total,” Sacks said during the podcast. “If we had held all of that, just that the portion we sold would be worth over $17 billion.”
Ahead of the summit, Trump signed an executive order calling for the creation of the bitcoin reserve and crypto stockpile using existing government holdings, disappointing traders with a lack of commitment to new bitcoin and crypto purchases though leaving the door open to acquiring more bitcoin though “budget neutral” methods that “do not impose incremental costs on United States taxpayers.”
Sacks added during a press conference that the Treasury and Commerce department, led by bitcoin price bull Howard Lutnick, are only “allowed to buy more if it doesn’t add to the deficit or the debt.”
Sign up now for CryptoCodex—A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious
Read More: ‘Maximize The Value’—Trump’s Price Plan For Bitcoin, XRP, ETH, SOL And ADA