By Trevor Hunnicutt
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new U.S. crypto strategic reserve on Sunday, spiking the market value of each.
Trump said on social media that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, SOL and ADA. The names had not previously been announced.
The assets rose 8% to 62% in trading on Sunday.
Trump said his order “directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.”
More than an hour later, Trump added another post: “And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve.”
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, was up around 8% at $90,828. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, was up 8.3% at $2,409.
The Republican president won support from the crypto industry in his 2024 election bid, and he has quickly moved to back their policy priorities. Under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.
In recent weeks though, cryptocurrency prices are down sharply, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains made after Trump’s election win triggered a wave of excitement across the industry.
Analysts say the market needs a reason to move higher, such as indications that the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates or a clear pro-crypto regulatory framework from the Trump administration.
Trump is hosting the first White House Crypto Summit on Friday. His family has also launched its own coins.
It’s not clear how the new stockpile will be set up or work.
Analysts and legal experts are divided on whether an act of Congress will be necessary. Some have argued the reserve could be created via the U.S. Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, which can be used to purchase or sell foreign currencies.
Trump’s crypto group had planned to look at potentially creating the stockpile with cryptocurrencies seized in law enforcement actions.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Alistair Bell and Bill Berkrot)
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