Bitcoin reserve - yawn

From the «yugely meh» department:
Title: Trump's federal Bitcoin reserve order leaves the crypto market unenthused
Author: Will Shanklin
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2025 18:41:38 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trumps-federal-bitcoin-reserve-order-leaves-the-crypto-market-unenthused-184135436.html?src=rss
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With US stocks unstable[1], consumer confidence in the economy plunging[2] and
whispers of a potential recession growing less muted[3], the economy under
President Donald Trump's second term has been about as stable as a recovering
addict's first week back on blow. With that turbulence as a backdrop, the
cryptocurrency industry hoped Thursday's executive order[4] establishing a
federal Bitcoin reserve would at least spur a surge in the blockchain
ecosystem. Instead, Bitcoin's value has dropped sharply, and one crypto-focused
hedge fund founder called Trump's order "the most underwhelming and
disappointing outcome we could have expected for this week."

After Trump posted in January that he would sign an executive order to
establish a crypto stockpile, the market responded enthusiastically and prices
rose accordingly. Bitcoin spiked[5] to an all-time high of over $109,000 in
January (after surpassing the $100,000 mark for the first time[6] in early
December).

On Friday, at its lowest point following Trump's executive order, Bitcoin fell
by around five percent to $85,000. It had recovered a bit at the time of
publication but was still only hovering at around $88,000, a nearly 20 percent
nosedive from its January high (and down over 2.2 percent on the day).

'Just a fancy title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed'

Much of the underwhelming reaction stems from the reserve's use of shares
already owned by the government through seizures[7] or civil asset forfeitures[8]
. Although the order leaves the door open to possible government Bitcoin
purchases in the future, White House crypto czar David Sacks clarified[9] that
the executive branch was only "authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies
for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided that those strategies impose no
incremental costs on American taxpayers."

That wasn't what the crypto bros were hoping for. "This is the most
underwhelming and disappointing outcome we could have expected for this week,"
Charles Edwards, founder of the crypto-focused hedge fund Capriole Investments,
posted[10] on X (via[11]Reuters). "No active buying means this is just a fancy
title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed with the Govt. This is a pig in
lipstick."

In addition, the executive order also calls for a "US Digital Asset Stockpile"
for other crypto tokens, which Trump has said will include Ether, XRP, Solana
and Cardano.

Potential conflicts of interest

Crypto industry executives are holding a summit at the White House on Friday
to, among other topics, get a better lay of the land regarding future
regulatory enforcement. Among the attendees is Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong,
whose company was one of several[12] that recently had enforcement cases
dropped by Trump's SEC[13]. (Convenient!) Reutersreports[11] that analysts
believe the market needs a reason to become bullish again, like a clearer
pro-crypto regulatory policy or signs that the US Federal Reserve plans to cut
interest rates.

Trump successfully courted the industry in his 2024 campaign. In addition to
pledging to create a federal crypto reserve, he promised[14] to make America
"the crypto capital of the planet" and fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on day one.
(In November, he announced he would resign[15] the moment Trump took office on
January 20.)

The 47th US President also has a stake in crypto, which has set off alarms (if
not blaring sirens) of potential conflicts of interest. First, he and First
Lady Melania Trump have memecoins, currently down 80 and 90 percent[16],
respectively, from their all-time highs right before his inauguration. Trump
also has a stake in the crypto platform World Liberty Financial, which
reportedly[17] bought over $20 million worth of cryptocurrencies — including
over $10 million in Ether, $9.9 million in Bitcoin derivative WBTC and $1.68
million in MOVE — ahead of Friday's White House summit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trumps-federal-bitcoin-reserve-order-leaves-the-crypto-market-unenthused-184135436.html?src=rss

Links:
[1]: https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/06/investing/us-stocks-tariff-uncertainty/index.html (link)
[2]: https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence/press/CCI-Feb-2025 (link)
[3]: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/recession-risks-rise-all-three-north-american-economies-over-us-tariff-chaos-2025-03-07/ (link)
[4]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-u-s-digital-asset-stockpile/ (link)
[5]: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/20/bitcoin-jumps-to-a-new-record-as-traders-cheer-trump-inauguration-meme-coins.html (link)
[6]: https://www.engadget.com/computing/bitcoin-price-breaks-the-100000-barrier-for-the-first-time-042918884.html (link)
[7]: https://www.engadget.com/justice-department-bitcoin-bitfinex-184543968.html (link)
[8]: https://www.engadget.com/doj-seizes-34-million-of-crypto-from-the-dark-web-seller-215005062.html (link)
[9]: https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1897802280738734236 (link)
[10]: https://x.com/caprioleio/status/1897806192053043216 (link)
[11]: https://www.reuters.com/technology/trump-signs-order-establish-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-white-house-crypto-czar-2025-03-07/ (link)
[12]: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-sec-is-dropping-an-investigation-into-robinhood-160629179.html (link)
[13]: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/coinbase-says-trumps-sec-has-ended-its-enforcement-case-against-the-crypto-company-171331785.html (link)
[14]: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-stockpile-6f1314f5e99bbf47cc3ee6fc6178588d (link)
[15]: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-182 (link)
[16]: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-melania-meme-coin-crypto-152448231.html (link)
[17]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-06/trump-s-crypto-project-appears-to-buy-tokens-before-white-house-summit (link)