The Daily: Digesting the crypto reserve-fueled Trump pump, Standard Chartered's $500,000 bitcoin target back in focus and more
Quick Take President Trump’s announcement on Sunday, directing a working group to “move forward” on a U.S. Crypto Strategic Reserve, sent prices soaring, with the BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA assets named all rallying between 10% and 70% before correcting on Monday. Standard Chartered Head of Digital Asset Research Geoff Kendrick said Trump’s Crypto Reserve plan would provide long-term stability for bitcoin, bringing his $500,000 target by 2029 back into focus.
The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.
I hope you had a good weekend, folks. President Trump's Crypto Strategic Reserve announcement on Sunday — naming BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA — reignited crypto bull market hopes after last week's price plunge. But are we so back, or will it be so over like the short-lived Xi candle of 2019?
In today's crypto reserve special, we take a look at what's next after the announcement-fueled Trump pump, Standard Chartered says its bitcoin price target of $500,000 is now back in focus, TD Cowen warns not to overreact to the news and more.
Meanwhile, the SEC reportedly agrees to drop its case against crypto exchange Kraken.
Let's get started.
What's next after the latest crypto reserve-fueled Trump pump?
President Trump's announcement on Sunday, directing a working group to "move forward" on a U.S. crypto strategic reserve, sent prices soaring, with the BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA assets named all rallying between 10% and 70% before correcting on Monday.
- Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein noted the shift in Trump's language from a "National Bitcoin Stockpile" during the election campaign to a "National Digital Asset Stockpile" in his January executive order and now a "Crypto Strategic Reserve."
- This raises questions over what the allocation between assets would be, how it would be funded and how likely it is even to be enacted.
- While a stockpile would likely have meant the retention of seized crypto assets, a reserve signifies an intention to acquire cryptocurrencies through some mechanism that remains unclear.
- "If the Fed balance sheet is involved, it would require a specific bill to be passed by the Congress," the analysts said. "It is also unlikely the government can pull off the reserve under the Treasury, without involving the Fed balance sheet."
- If a crypto reserve ever was approved, potential funding sources include gold revaluation and reallocation, Treasury debt issuance or partnerships with institutional asset managers, they added.
- Many criticized the idea, highlighting a contradiction between the Elon Musk-led DOGE initiative to cut government spending and the idea of potentially redirecting funds toward digital asset investments.
- The crypto community also had mixed reactions, with critics wary of a reserve including anything but bitcoin, while others saw the broader allocation as a negotiation tactic by President Trump.
- "Crypto skeptics can cringe all along, but it remains hard to ignore the timeline. We are in a new era. It still screams bullish to us. We still think bitcoin is headed to $200,000," the Bernstein analysts said.
- More information on the crypto reserve plans is expected at the government's inaugural Crypto Summit on Friday, chaired by Trump's Crypto Czar David Sacks.
Standard Chartered's $500,000 bitcoin target back in focus amid 'Trump put'
Standard Chartered Head of Digital Asset Research Geoff Kendrick said Trump's Crypto Reserve plan would provide long-term stability for bitcoin, bringing his $500,000 target by 2029 back into focus .
- Bitcoin transitioning into a stable component of global investment portfolios and increased investor access are the primary catalysts for long-term bitcoin price appreciation, in his view.
- Kendrick also argued that Trump's reserve announcement removes the potential for "bad outcomes," and opens room for the crypto market to now start edging higher after a poor February.
- "The combination of the worst month in 2.5 years followed by the best weekend in 4 years looks to me like the first solid data point of a 'Trump put' for crypto, similar to the 'Fed put' for stocks," he said.
'Don't overreact' to Trump's crypto reserve, TD Cowen warns
Taking a different stance, investment bank TD Cowen criticized President Trump's crypto reserve announcement as uncoordinated and lacking a clear funding plan, warning against overreacting to the news .
- "The original version [of the announcement] did not even include bitcoin and ether as part of the reserve. That suggests to us it was not coordinated," the TD Cowen analysts said. "There was also no discussion of how the government would get the funds to buy tokens," they added, raising questions about the plan's feasibility.
- TD Cowen also downplayed the significance of calling it a "reserve" versus a "stockpile," noting that it remains unclear whether the U.S. government plans to buy more or simply retain seized crypto assets.
- The upcoming White House Crypto Summit is also expected to clarify Trump's stance on stablecoins and market structure legislation. "Our view remains that only a bipartisan solution can provide the crypto sector the legal stability it needs," TD Cowen said.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong favors bitcoin-only reserve
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong suggested that bitcoin alone would "probably" be the best option for a U.S. crypto reserve , calling it the simplest and clearest successor to gold.
- "If folks wanted more variety, you could do a market cap-weighted index of crypto assets to keep it unbiased. But probably option #1 is easiest," he said.
- Binance founder Changpeng Zhao predicted that more valuable cryptocurrencies will likely be added to the reserve over time and that more countries would follow suit.
- However, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes dismissed Trump's crypto reserve announcement as mere words, arguing that without congressional approval or gold revaluation, there's no funding to buy bitcoin or altcoins.
Crypto Czar David Sacks confirms he already sold holdings amid conflict claims
White House Crypto Czar David Sacks confirmed that he had already sold all his cryptocurrency holdings , including BTC, ETH and SOL — assets named in the crypto reserve announcement — before joining the Trump administration.
- Sacks pushed back against conflict of interest claims that he still holds indirect crypto investments, stating that he also sold his $74,000 Bitwise Crypto Index Fund position on Jan. 22 and he would provide another update after the official ethics review process had concluded.
- However, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures, which retains stakes in crypto startups, including Bitwise.
In the next 24 hours
- BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda will speak at 9:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday. U.S. FOMC member John Williams follows at 2:20 p.m.
- IOTA is set to unlock 8.63 million IOTA tokens worth $2 million, representing 0.24% of the circulating supply. EigenLayer will release 1.29 million EIGEN tokens worth $2.1 million, 0.53% of its circulating supply.
Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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