President Trump tasks working group to evaluate creation of national crypto reserve: Fox
2025-01-24
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a "Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets" according to Fox Business.
That executive order is presumably the establishment of a crypto council, which The Block previously reported could have anywhere between 10 and 100 members. Those members will presumably be crypto executives, but those decisions will be up to the firms to pick who will represent them in the council.
That working group will work on developing a federal regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins and work to create a "strategic national digital assets stockpile."
President Trump's apparent plans to issue an executive order making crypto a “national policy priority” had been well-reported on, as was his promise to create such a reserve and "protect" Bitcoin from longtime crypto opponent Elizabeth Warren "and her goons."
There was debate over whether an executive order would simply create a national bitcoin stockpile based on existing funds seized from criminal activity over the years versus establishing a more substantial reserve that would buy more bitcoin over time. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) previously introduced draft legislation for a U.S. national bitcoin reserve with a goal of buying 1 million BTC ($108 billion) using government funds over the next five years. The U.S. is currently the largest known nation-state holder of bitcoin, with seizures amounting to 198,109 BTC (approximately $21 billion).
More recently, President Trump was reportedly receptive to the idea of establishing an “America-first” strategic reserve that prioritizes coins founded in the U.S., such as USDC, SOL and XRP. Leading up to the inauguration, unsubstantiated rumors circulated on social media claiming that a draft of Trump's inauguration speech featuring a bitcoin strategic reserve announcement leaked. The foremost cryptocurrency subsequently surged to a new all-time high of more than $109,000 earlier on Monday, according to The Block's Bitcoin Price Page.
Trump’s campaign promises also included appointing a more crypto-friendly Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, commuting Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht's life sentence, establishing a Crypto Presidential Advisory Council, repealing SAB 121, ending “Operation Choke Point 2.0” and turning the U.S. into a bitcoin mining “powerhouse.”
Trump's memecoin launch
The news follows the high-profile and controversial launch of President Trump's official memecoin amid the inaugural Crypto Ball in Washington on Friday night. The TRUMP token subsequently surged to a market cap of around $15 billion, per The Block's Official Trump Price Page, becoming the fastest-growing memecoin in history — reaching a fully diluted value of more than $75 billion the same weekend it launched. TRUMP was followed up by the launch of MELANIA, an official memecoin of First Lady Melania Trump.
The memecoins were launched on Solana, causing many, at the time, to consider it an endorsement of the Layer 1 over rival Ethereum. The price of SOL hit a new all-time high off the back of President Trump's memecoin while ether saw declines. However, the news that the Trump-backed decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial purchased more ether helped bolster Ethereum's native asset. World Liberty Financial also now owns ENS domains worldliberty.eth, trumpcoin.eth, erictrump.eth and barrontrump.eth.
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