Industry leaders chide Trump's inclusion of XRP and ADA in US crypto reserve: 'delegitimizes assets like bitcoin'
Quick Take President Trump announced plans for a U.S. “crypto strategic reserve,” surprising many by including XRP, SOL and ADA alongside BTC and ETH. Industry experts questioned the inclusion of XRP and ADA, arguing they lack the developer activity and decentralization seen in BTC and ETH.
When U.S. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday to announce his crypto working group will move forward on a " crypto strategic reserve ," industry pundits were surprised to see the likes of XRP, ADA and even SOL included in that order.
Adding these three cryptocurrencies did not sit well with some, even though the president made a follow-up post to reiterate that BTC and ETH, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, would also be included.
"A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration," Trump wrote. "I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World."
Trump signed an executive order in January to explore a strategic digital asset reserve, with language around evaluating the "potential creation" of a digital asset stockpile. Later this week, he is set to host an inaugural White House Crypto Summit and will deliver remarks to crypto founders, CEOs and investors, which will be chaired by Crypto Czar David Sacks and run by Bo Hines, the director of Trump's working group on digital assets.
While the news sparked the market , with all five assets rallying between 10% and 70%, the order came with heavy criticism.
"It's not the job of the government to run an ersatz crypto hedge fund," Castle Island Ventures General Partner Nic Carter said in a post on X. "It's not their job to pick winners and losers."
Debating the merits of altcoin inclusion
ETH and SOL make sense to include, given their strong and growing developer activity, said Harrison Seletsky, director of business development at digital identity platform SPACE ID. However, XRP and ADA are "virtually ghost chains" compared to Ethereum and Solana, he remarked, with the total value locked and stablecoin capabilities on XRPL and Cardano being tiny compared to other ecosystem players — $80 million and $460 million, respectively.
"In my eyes, it somewhat delegitimizes the whole idea of crypto reserve assets like industry mainstays bitcoin, ether and solana," Seletsky said. Still, he noted it further legitimizes digital assets in the eyes of newcomers and institutions.
XRP, ADA and SOL are all "basically tech companies that happen to have a cryptocurrency," according to Two Prime Digital Assets CEO Alexander Blume.
"They are very centrally controlled and ownership is also highly concentrated," Blume told The Block. "These products are constantly changing and adapting to the market whereas BTC is a decentralized product with no single group of owners or controllers and is more akin to gold."
The question now is whether we will see any actual details around crypto legislation in the foreseeable future, according to Chris Chung, founder of the Solana swap platform Titan.
"What’s clear is that the U.S. president is now the driving force for crypto market movements, and he is certainly playing favorites with crypto tokens," Chung said in a statement. "I certainly think the U.S. administration’s vote of confidence could expedite the approval of altcoin ETFs. This would likely go hand in hand with greater regulatory clarity on the classification of the underlying tokens in these ETFs, including Solana, XRP and the others awaiting the SEC’s decision."
Investment bank TD Cowen called the announcement uncoordinated , a point echoed by CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott.
"It felt very unprofessional — almost a knee-jerk reaction to the crypto market going through a correction and Trump not wanting it to reflect poorly on himself," Scott said in an email. "This could have been a purely political play to maintain support."
The skepticism extended beyond the assets themselves, raising broader concerns about the government's role in influencing the crypto market.
"The announcement of the US crypto reserve, which will include XRP, SOL and ADA, is a clear sign that President Trump is trying to pump his own bags," Jean Rausis, co-founder of decentralized finance ecosystem SMARDEX, said in a statement. "He doesn’t understand anything about these assets or the merits of having them in a strategic reserve. It’s obvious that Bitcoin and Ethereum are much more suited for this, yet they were mentioned as an afterthought."
Bitcoin reserve makes more sense, experts say
Many industry leaders argue that a true strategic reserve should focus solely on Bitcoin . Their concerns highlight a broader divide between political motivations and market fundamentals, with critics questioning whether the administration’s approach prioritizes optics over practicality.
"I imagined a Strategic Reserve would be just Bitcoin. That makes the most sense to me," Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsely said in a post on X . "Many crypto assets have merits, but what we're talking about here isn't a U.S. investment portfolio — we're talking about a reserve, and Bitcoin is the undisputed store of value for the digital age."
Scott, whose company runs a Bitcoin trading exchange, said it makes "zero sense" for a crypto reserve to buy anything but BTC.
"No country wants to hold something that can be fully controlled by a single entity, especially an entity in a foreign country," Scott said. "This is a whole new thought process for people as Bitcoin is decentralized, it has no company, country, entity or individual controlling it, it makes perfect sense for countries to build a strategic reserve."
Indeed, it appears tokens like XRP, ADA and SOL were added because they are "American." The New York Post reported in January on the possibility of Trump including tokens founded in the U.S. in an "America-first" crypto reserve.
"Can you imagine Russia or China buying XRP (which is fully controlled by the U.S. company Ripple) as a strategic reserve?" Scott said. "If the U.S. were to introduce sanctions, they could completely freeze China or Russia's access to their XRP."
This is one case where the Trump administration's goals are out of step with the realities of the market, Blume said.
"While the announcement of a strategic crypto reserve is a hugely positive move for the market and the industry overall, it would have been better to have limited this to only BTC," Blume told The Block. "That would give the U.S. the best value for its money and the greatest level of support for BTC. In its current form, this is a mixed bag that will muddy the waters for investors by propping up altcoins that lack the fundamentals of BTC."
Following huge rallies Sunday and into Monday, the crypto market pulled back over the past eight hours after President Trump said the U.S. will stay the course and impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, along with a 10% tariff on imports from China.
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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