If the answer is none, then there won’t be one, without Congress.
Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology
On January 23, Trump issued an Executive Order on Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to promote United States leadership in digital assets and financial technology while protecting economic liberty, it is hereby ordered as follows: …
I leave it to the reader to read the rest of the nonsense because Trump has no such authority to do what he says.
The article below sums up the situation nicely.
Strategic Corruption Reserve
Please consider the Strategic Corruption Reserve
The term “Crypto Strategic Reserve” is a non sequitur since there are no plausible circumstances in which the United States government holding large amounts of cryptocurrencies would be of any strategic benefit.
A strategic oil reserve is beneficial in the event of a shortage of oil imports or a disruption in domestic oil production. When would a reserve of cryptocurrency be useful? Under what circumstance would the United States need to make a transaction with a crypto token that could not also be made with the dollar?
It raises the question of why the United States would divert taxpayer resources to obtain these tokens.
While the public benefit is unclear, the biggest economy in the world buying up large amounts of various crypto tokens would be a financial windfall for the companies that created these tokens and the people who already own them. Those companies and investors also have close political and financial ties to Trump.
For XRP, being included in Trump’s proposed national crypto reserve is a major coup for its creator, Ripple.
Introduced in 2012, XRP is the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency and was designed to speed up international transactions by using XRP as a bridge currency for transactions made through Ripple’s payment network. Most of the large financial institutions that use Ripple’s platform, however, do not use XRP, so the currency has little value other than as a speculative asset. The currency remains highly centralized, with Ripple owning 48 billion XRP of the 100 billion coins in circulation.
In December 2020, the end of Trump’s first term, the SEC issued charges against Ripple related to XRP, alleging that the token was an unregistered security. Initially a court ruled that XRP is a security in certain transactions but not in others, but the SEC appealed that decision. Although the SEC has abandoned many of its other legal actions against crypto firms, the appeal in the XRP case is still pending.
Ripple’s improving political fortunes is not an accident. The company contributed $5 million worth of XRP to Trump’s inauguration fund, one of the largest corporate contributions. Ripple also donated $45 million dollars to Fairshake, a Super PAC that supported pro-crypto congressional candidates and played a critical role in securing Republican majorities in the House and Senate. The company has since contributed another $25 million to Fairshake ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse attended Trump’s inauguration and earlier in January, he and Ripple’s chief legal officer had dinner with Trump at Mar-A-Lago. The New York Post reported that Garlinghouse is on the shortlist of candidates for Trump’s crypto advisory council.
Garlinghouse praised Trump’s inclusion of smaller and more volatile cryptocurrencies like XRP in the national crypto reserve on X.
Trump himself could also benefit through the bolstering of the Solana protocol, which hosts most memecoins. In January, Trump and his wife Melania both launched their own memecoins on Solana. Including Solana in a crypto reserve may benefit the Solana network and, as a result, boost the value of Trump’s memecoin.
Questions Abound
- Does the idea of a government-sponsored crypto czar picking crypto winners make any sense?
- Is a government crypto reserve is antithetical to the original vision of Bitcoin?
- Is anyone nauseated by this?
- Is XRP, Ripple the official reserve currency of the US?
- XRP Ripple? A reserve currency? Seriously?
- Is Trump for sale to the highest bidder?
No Vested Power to Fund This
There is no vested power for Trump to fund a crypto reserve with taxpayer or Treasury funds.
I am not sure who if anyone would have standing to block a crypto advisory committee, but I fail to see how Trump can get this legally funded without Congress or gifts that would then become government assets that Congress could appropriate.
Even crypto fans should be nauseated by this effort, the hypocrisy, and the obvious inherent corruption.
Will the US Be that Stupid?
Q: What do you mean?
A: Have a crypto reserve.
I don’t know. If Congress approves and funds a crypto reserve, then we will have one.
But we won’t have one by executive order because Trump has no authority to authorize and fund projects.
And if you are foolish enough to be cheering for this, wait until Democrats use their “vested power” to do similar things.
Other Posts
March 5, 2025: Trump Goads Germany Into a Budget-Breaking Increase in Defense Spending
Chalk up a likely victory for Trump on German defense spending.
March 6, 2025: Trump Makes Imports Great Again With Two New Record Trade Deficits
The Census Department reports two new records trade deficits in January.
March 7, 2025: Trump Threatens Russia With Strong Sanctions in Effort to Reach Peace Deal
Following a drone attack on Ukraine, Trump threatens Russia.
On a case by case basis, I comment on what Trump is doing.
If you seek constant admiration or panning of Trump, you are in the wrong place.
There is a certain irony for the government of the country with the world’s leading reserve currency to promote cryptocurrency. The rationale for crypto is that the government can’t be trusted to be good stewards of the currency and therefore alternatives such as Bitcoin should be acquired as a true store of value. (You may not agree that Bitcoin is a good store of value but that is the sales pitch for it.)
So what is the message that the administration is sending? Yes, we will continue to print and spend and debase the dollar but don’t worry as we will create a crypto reserve as a hedge against that profligacy?
They should be focused on implementing sound monetary and financial policies that protects the purchasing power of the currency and there wouldn’t be a reason for a crypto reserve.
=======
Mish: Unrelated Question from Flavia …
Who is in the middle in the lead image?
I believe it’s Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse who owns 48 Percent of Ripple.
He donated millions to Trump’s campaign
Congratulations to Russell for an excellent comment. Elevated to the top spot.
The same irony can be said regarding central banks hoarding gold. IDK, maybe gold will hold up better after an EMP attack wipes out the “digital gold”.
By what authority? Same as most other ‘authority’….populism-driven-expedience.
And then there is this –
This Is State-Sanctioned Theft!! Everything You NEED To Know About The “BITCOIN STRATEGIC RESERVE”!!
On Thursday March 6th, one day before the first ever crypto summit was held at the Whitehouse, President Trump signed an executive order for the “Establishment Of The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve And United States Digital Asset Stockpile”.
In this video Dan Dicks of Press For Truth explains how this has nothing to do with Bitcoin adoption and everything to do with state sanctioned theft via civil asset forfeiture!
(video run time = 8:39 minutes)
https://pressfortruth.ca/this-is-state-sanctioned-theft-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-bitcoin-strategic-reserve/
“ If you seek constant admiration or panning of Trump, you are in the wrong place.”
This why I like to follow the posts, although I do not always agree. Too often people feel that one has to ‘take a side’. Most people hate to question their beliefs and stick to them like a cult, totally suppressing critical thinking. Not surprisingly, Trump hates critical thinkers.
I love comments like these…”Not surprisingly, Trump hates critical thinkers.”
Money is power. Follow the money. “It’s our currency but your problem.” “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” Money is the incentive used to manipulate outcomes. Money manipulates political outcomes. Politicians are bought by BIG money and politicians buy votes, promising to spend the tax payers money on them. Never any way to get money out of politics. The subject here is BIG money interest in crypto, but look at the BIG money interest all across the board. Voters didn’t want the BIG banks bailed out, but congress did so anyway. Money talks loudly. Senators added pork to buy off those in the House, opposed to the bailout. “Show me the incentive and i will show you the outcome.”
So the United States will become great at manipulating some new asset bubble. The US should be concentrating on producing worthwhile and necessary goods. Instead we are making dollars, stock certificates, and anything else that can be securitized. That is about all we can do. Reality will hit sooner or later and it will be more than painful.
I always see bitcoin as a bubble. Seems it is going to be tulip bubble in epic proportion. When the price is high enough and no sucker left to buy it will crash as the bubble always does. When that happen 2010 great recession will be child play.
I thought I read somewhere that allot of the Crypto they would use to fund the reserve would be crypto the government has already obtained from criminal seizures?
Like this poor guys crypto. He would have been a multi billionaire today except for one little screw up.
https://youtu.be/pxvd1YOMGxU?si=Nz8SMzCF95fkz9Vt
I bought some XRP back a little under .50c per token. Why? It’s one of the few tokens that actually has some semblance of an actual business model. It’s just a pure gambling purchase on my part, it’s gone down a little with the latest Bitcoin drop but I’m still up 5x what I “invested”. I’ll hold it until it goes to the moon or zero.
I don’t really know, but he just did.
I’m not sure why you’re trying to down this idea. I don’t give a care about crypto, what I do care about is Trump thinking like a business person. Which is obviously what the last administration had no concept how to do. If the numbers are correct, we had 400,000 bitcoin, we didn’t pay for it. We just took it from people who didn’t deserve it or stole it in the first place, clearly the government has the ability to confiscate. There’s no immediate need nor have I heard any idea to use new funds, it’s only funds that the government is going to acquire, why not deposit them in this fund, maybe a couple years from now will be well over 400,000 bitcoin again, now the US just has an investment. And they can do with it what makes sense.
Just like our investment in gold, should it actually still be in Fort Knox, being carried at something like $50 per ounce, clearly that doesn’t make any sense, particularly with such a marketable asset. The government needs to be run as a business, certainly we need to keep our welfare programs, But we don’t need to be wasting half the money to do so and we probably don’t need at least half the people we have today administering those programs. Particularly the 90% of government workers that aren’t going into the office as of a month ago.
Trump threatened any country that used another reserve currency than the dollar.
I supposed he should put tariffs on the US.
“The government needs to be run as a business, certainly we need to keep our welfare programs,”
Can you cite a successful business who’s primary business model is running welfare programs? The vast majority of the Fed budget goes towards social safety net programs (aka personal welfare) or corporate welfare via subsidies.
the people who like this idea like it only because Trump said it. If Biden had said we need a crypto reserve, Republican heads would have exploded and you know it. Crypto is not yet a true currency and now the us government wants to make it one, to compete with the dollar?? And meanwhile the POTUS is issuing his own crypto products?? yeah, nothing wrong with that picture.
So far, Crypto gains are realized by converting them to dollars – – the latter is the point of having Crypto in the 1st place.
Self-Canceling. Very apropos to this time in History.
“ Will the US Be that Stupid?”
The US voted for Tump, so the answer is yes.
A cryptocurrency reserve is a gift to the Trump billionaires who hold interests in cryptocurrencies. Ask Howard Lutnick and the Winklevoss brothers, for example.
“The SEC views most cryptocurrencies as securities and applies existing securities laws, requiring registration and compliance for those that meet the definition of an investment contract, as determined by the Howey Test.”
The question then is does the Treasury have the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the same manner as bonds or foreign exchange for that matter?
This is a nothing burger, It’s being funded with confiscated crypto. This is a simple way to toss a bone to the crypto crowd.
Nothing more.
You have to pay to dine with Trump, millions of dollars. He is just selling himself to the highest bidders, which happens to be the crypto kings, but he will lose interest after his policies have burst the latest crypto bubble.
Trump is using the Office of President to further enrich himself, that is the sole motivation of every decision he is making. It’s actually all incredibly simple.
Oh, and your Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Sincerely yours, A Brit
London is 10 minutes from Moscow at Mach 12.
After reading extensively about crypto I determined it’s worse than Beanie Babies. Nothing about it makes any sense. Real estate or gold. Those are and will always be the parking lot for the market.
I’m not bashing it either. For some it has worked out well. Others, no so much. If something makes no sense though I’m out. Have fun with it. I will never gain or loose in beanie babies or crypto. To each their own.
The key to Crypto was to cash out on big rips.
“If you seek constant admiration or panning of Trump, you are in the wrong place”.
Why are your knickers in a knot?
Who’s the guy in the middle?
I believe it’s Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse who owns 48 Percent of Ripple.
He donated millions to Trump’s campaign
Thanks!
He is inviting the vermin closer to our core financial system — the infrastructure that makes our money reliably “money-good.” Is he an exploiter or exploited? In his zero-sum world, there is nobody else.
Not to imply the vermin have already been fed, but @ 35 trillion debt, is the US an exploiter or an exploited today?
It’s a question why Congress hasn’t already swatted this foolish idea down. Where are the checks and balances???
No corruption to be found, if you don’t look for it:
“The U.S. Department of Justice will refocus much of its staff and resources on the ‘total elimination’ of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations in the United States while disbanding units dedicated to prosecuting white-collar crime and kleptocrats and tracking foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-justice-department-disbands-teams-investigating-corruption-election-interference/7967503.html
It’s ridiculous – obviously it should be XMR, and the entire internet should only be accessible via TOR or I2P.
How???
Obviously by Royal Decree!
How else.
Pretty reckless situation overall. Trouble is the groundwork for major revolutionary change was not done. Unlike a Russia or China, America has a low pain threshold due to the polarity in the population. Any hardship home will devastate the program for this administration. There’s many ways that event could appear, no point in listing them.
The Supreme Court ruled he was immune from prosecution for anything he does or did as president, so maybe he’s testing the limits? Why not with an ineffective opposition party and the bottom feeders in his own party enabling him?
Well, the previous set of bottom feeder rather set a precedent with how low you can go.
He’s not liable for prosecution for espousing one dumb idea after another. He’s liable to be thwarted by the courts and by Congress. If his popularity plummets (it has not yet) Republicans in Congress will abandon him.
The strategic oil reserve functions for market manipulation by increasing the supply of crude in the market to lower its price. Why would the state have an interest to manipulate the crypto market? Why would the crypto hodlers welcome it?
The strategic oil reserve is too small to matter really, it’s meant for emergencies.
Like when the 2022 midterms were looming.
Trump’s been indicted for many crimes and is a convicted tax cheat and criminal. Yet he was elected by voters who don’t care about his corruption. Now the rest of us have to live with it. Trump’s backing of Putin and Russia in the Ukraine war runs counter to voter preferences and 80 years of US policy towards Russia as a corrupt, authoritarian country constantly trying to derail America and other democracies. Trump is cooperating with Putin and is an obvious Putin agent. What people don’t recognize is Trump has been doing business with Russians and Russian gangsters for 40 years when they helped bail him out of poverty after his casinos went under. https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/explainers/russian-asset-trumps-policy-behavior-confirms-evidence-groomed-kremlin-since-1980s/
Wait, did you care about Biden’s massive corruption, including actual pay to play with Ukraine / Russian / China, over the last 15 years or so?
Let me guess. HELL NO, you weren’t. Definitely hiding this BS.
Show your evidence.
no, because that hasn’t been proven or even evidenced in any way shape or form.
I bet you feel so much better after that virtual wank.
The sooner Ukraine surrenders the better off they’ll be. Don’t be cruel.
Trump is less corrupt than the NY courts that harassed him.
he was also a fraudster many times over, long before he became a politician.
while he was running casinos he looted them and left everyone else holding the bag. nyoen remember Trump University. He is a fraudster and so are most in his circle, which is why they got rid of the CFPB, the only government consumer agency that actually was effective at its job and got money back to consumers. Everyone better be checking their monthly bank statements, you can bet there will be unathorized charges sneaking in there.
Sort of on topic: Both $Trump meme coin and $Melania meme coin hit record lows today ($11.79 and $.75 respectively)
At some point they’ll converge at the zero point.
But what if some Oligarch from Russia buys the coins and bids them up with his massive purchase to launder money to Trump or Melania?
They’ll converge at infinity.
(disclaimer – I don’t believe in a Russia-Trump connection, but I do criticize Trump when criticism is due – as it is with the meme coins he created just before he was inaugurated)
I guess the same thing will happen as what happened to Sam Bankman-Fried when he was doing “crypto stuff” for the Democrat holy trinity.
Taxpayer funded? Hell no!
Inflation funded? Same thing!
We have the best government money can buy . Also campaigns need to be publicly financed. No contributions whatsoever. I thought the reserve was only holding confiscated crypto currency? His actions along with his personal family mem bs smell to high heaven. Aren’t there some ethics violations here?
Name the last president who didn’t have any “ethics violataions”? I dare you.
“Aren’t there some ethics violations here?”
Who’s going to chase those down? Trump controls Congress and owns the DOJ.
That’s how Biden skated.
Trump doesn’t need any approvals as he is KING!
…but I am Emperor…
Trump is installing Pete Rose into The Baseball Hall of Fame. Save that post for a slow click day here.
I’m sure that will make Rose happy.
Like all public officials, of which we have too many by a factor of 10, they have scads of free time and just sit around and think of things to do, projects they’d like, what ifs of silliness, whether funded or not. All the while we are working and trying to make ends meet. That’s why the key is to remove as many as possible as this, like oh so many others, is one more dumb idea. Of course they might strike upon a good idea too but the fewer public officials the better. And now exposed is not only the plethora of past bad ideas but the underlying grift, corruption and fraud they wrap around.
We’re going to see a lot of things now that the disruptive force is in charge, some good and some not so good. The question is whether we can fire enough and disrupt enough to kill the cancer of runaway government/debt before our own dumb ideas become the very thing that stops the progress.
I bought the Select JiffyPop White and Yellow popcorn, oil, butter and salt for just this purpose.
A Mish-blog dream of endless material for years and years.
I use natural corn kernels in a microwave popper. Takes 2 minutes to pop. Add salt, shake. No oil needed.
Many choices. Here’s one:
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Popcorn-Silicone-Heat-Resistant-Dishwasher/dp/B0DSKHJ9YK
As long as Trump terrifies Republicans in Congress, and Republicans in Congress can’t grow a spine, Trump will go on to do much worse things than creating a strategic bitcoin reserve (likely one of most corrupt policies ever, but it benefits only a few of his billionaire friends).
Yes, he’s like Satan’s naughty little brother, isn’t he.
It’s amazing how TRUMP has cowed almost all Republicans into silence! Aren’t there any that aren’t desperate to run for reelection willing to stand up for the Constitution and against King Trump?
They’re picking their battles carefully.
They have to save their energy for when he does something truly awful.
Trump slightly outperformed most GOP candidates in 2024. He dragged Dave McCormick over the finish line, for example. The weak tit establishment republicans – contrary to the received wisdom – do themselves no favor by opposing Trump. That could change.
A plain reading of the constitution makes it clear there is NO authority for a presidential-ordered crypto strategic reserve. HOWEVER, a reworked old song from the 60’s illustrates the source authority: “I am the God of Hell Fire…and I Bring you – CRYPTO…your dollars will burn”. (Apologies to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
You may as well have a strategic reserve of election promises and IoUs for all it’s worth.
Despite numerous deep dives, I don’t understand crypto at all. I wish someone would explain it to me like I’m a 5th grader. Maybe Trump could call a press conference and explain how crypto works to the American people.
It’s like football stickers / baseball cards… or rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia – it’s only of value to obsessive types. You can auction it for whatever some idiot will want, and most of it isn’t traded. You can’t get loans or bonds in crypto, it’s not money (supply).
No one’s hacked the blockchain… yet.
I’ll iterate – on a 1 – 10, Trump is a sold “2.” And don’t bother commenting “TDS.” I’ve voted for him three times. That is NOT an indication of the esteem in which I hold him, but the utter contempt I have for those who ran against him.
Jeb! (Please Applaud) was the opening act, while everyone knew it was to be Her Turn anyway.
The BTC ‘reserve’ already exists. Consists of siezed asset. All he did was rename it. The rest of it is performative. Watch his body language during the signing of the EO. Total disinterest.
The government should sell the seized bitcoins and repay debt. That’s what tax payers want.
I believe they do often sell seized crypto but am unsure who gets the funds. Probably the general treasury so they can spend more.
What was attractive about Trump in his first term was that supposedly he had funded the majority of his campaign and was not beholden to anyone. Now it is becoming very clear that in his second term he is bought and paid for just like every other politician in DC. All of is benefactors are now looking for returns on their investments.
If anything he seems to be *more* bought and paid for. Or perhaps it’s just more out in the open.
Regardless, he’s way out in front of his mandate skis (immigration, inflation) at this point.
Where does that come from? I am pretty sure I’ve bought and paid for everything.