Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 5 Other Coins Surge After Trump Mentions 'Reserve'

Ripple, Solana, Cardano Unexpectedly Surge Dramatically

Purchase Plan Volume and Funding Methods Not Yet Revealed

"Price Retreat Still Possible Due to Macroeconomic Concerns"

Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum surged after President Trump mentioned plans for a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. Particularly, Ripple, Solana, and Cardano, which were unexpectedly mentioned, saw dramatic increases.

According to Bloomberg and other foreign media on the 3rd (local time), Trump revealed in his social media post the previous day that he had directed a presidential working group to pursue a strategic cryptocurrency reserve including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, and Cardano.

Following this post, Bitcoin rose 9% to exceed $94,000. Ethereum, the second-largest digital token, climbed about 13% to over $2,500.

Cardano, a cryptocurrency widely known by the symbol ADA, surged more than 50%. SOL, the token named after the Solana blockchain, jumped more than 20%, and Ripple (XRP) soared 30%.

Spencer Harlan, Global Head of OTC Trading at cryptocurrency investment firm GSR, said President Trump's remarks "gave tremendous momentum to prices as more investors moved to rebuild long positions."

According to Andrew Tu, Sales Director at cryptocurrency market firm Efficient Frontier, it was surprising that Ripple and Cardano were included alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, many details of Trump's plan remain unknown. It's not yet clear how much the government will actually purchase or how the purchases will be funded.

Tu said, "If expectations don't match reality, the market could retreat again." He added, "Macroeconomic concerns still remain, so if stocks show difficult movements, cryptocurrency prices could retreat again as well."

According to tracking agency CoinMarketCap, the five tokens Trump mentioned for inclusion in the reserve are among the top 8 cryptocurrencies by market value. The three not included among the top 8 are Tether and USDC, stablecoins that track the US dollar, and Binance Coin, known as BNB, the token of the Binance exchange.

During his campaign, Trump promised to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. This was one of several cryptocurrency-related promises that fueled price surges until his inauguration day. However, after taking office, he rarely mentioned the strategic reserve. David Sacks, Trump's AI and cryptocurrency czar, also said in early February that the feasibility of the strategic reserve plan needed to be studied.

The cryptocurrency-related executive order announced by President Trump in January only mentioned the possibility of a "national digital asset reserve" without specifying particular tokens. Subsequently, new buying interest in Bitcoin decreased dramatically.

Bitcoin had fallen as much as 28% from its last peak above $109,000 on January 20, Trump's inauguration day, until last weekend. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell 28% in February, marking its worst month since the "crypto winter" of 2022 following the failure of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange.

In early February, President Trump shared a CoinDesk article about Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on Truth Social, drawing cheers from Ripple fans. Garlinghouse had said in December last year that he planned to donate $5 million worth of Ripple to Trump's inauguration celebration.

Garlinghouse was photographed dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago alongside Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's Chief Legal Officer.

Ripple Labs, headquartered in San Francisco, was sued by the SEC in 2020 for allegedly offering unregistered securities. Later, a US district court ruled that Ripple was a security when sold to institutional investors but not when sold to retail investors, which was considered a victory for the digital asset industry. The SEC appealed this ruling, and the appeal has not yet been dismissed.

Kim Jung-a, Contributing Writer kja@hankyung.com