west palm beach, florida, march 2 (reuters) – u.s. president donald trump announced on social media the selection of five digital assets to be included in a new u.s. strategic cryptocurrency reserve on sunday, triggering a surge in their market values.
in a post on truth social, trump stated that his january executive order on digital assets would establish a reserve featuring bitcoin, ether, xrp, solana, and cardano. these names had not been disclosed prior to the announcement.
over an hour later, trump followed up with another post, emphasizing: "and, obviously, btc and eth, as other valuable cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the reserve."
following the announcement, bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surged over 11% to $94,164 on sunday afternoon, while ether climbed 13% to $2,516. the total cryptocurrency market value has risen by approximately 10% (over $300 billion) since the statement, according to coingecko, a cryptocurrency data and analytics firm.
xrp, the token of cryptocurrency firm ripple labs, was among the selected assets. reuters previously reported that ripple supported a super pac aimed at influencing congressional elections in favor of the crypto industry.
“this move marks a shift toward active government participation in the crypto economy,” said federico brokate, head of u.s. business at 21shares, a digital asset investment management firm. “it could accelerate institutional adoption, bring greater regulatory clarity, and reinforce u.s. leadership in digital asset innovation.”
james butterfill, head of research at asset manager coinshares, expressed surprise that the reserve included assets beyond bitcoin.
“unlike bitcoin, these assets resemble tech investments,” butterfill said. “this suggests a more nationalistic approach to the broader crypto technology sector, rather than focusing on the fundamental qualities of these assets.”