Trump Plan for Strategic Crypto Reserve Called a 'New Level of Corruption'​

U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement Sunday of the names of digital assets he expects to include in a yet-to-be-established national cryptocurrency reserve was seen as his latest corrupt gift to an industry that pumped tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election and Trump's inauguration.

In a post to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote that the new reserve will include Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano.

"I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World," wrote Trump, whose own recent foray into crypto has been a boon for himself and his family—and a disaster for many smaller investors.

The New York Times noted Monday that "it's still not clear how such a reserve would work or when it would be introduced, though a Republican-authored bill in the Senate would direct the government to buy one million Bitcoins—worth about $92.6 billion at today's prices—over five years."

Eric Naing, communications director at the Demand Progress Education Fund, said in a statement that Trump's push for a strategic crypto reserve "sets a new low for transactional politics."

"The administration has made it clear there's no limit to what it's willing to give the crypto industry—regardless of the costs to taxpayers, investors, or the financial system as a whole," said Naing. "President Trump just mentioning the reserve led lagging crypto prices to shoot up overnight. Current crypto holders will be able to exploit this moment to sell high, and if Trump's plans continue, leave the federal government as the buyer of last resort."

"A U.S. Crypto Reserve would only serve to bail out crypto speculators who have donated millions to the Trump campaign and inauguration, as well as further boost the Trump family's own crypto investments," Naing added. "If this continues, the Trump administration will waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a soon-to-be worthless asset, just like the millions of Americans who were lured into predatory crypto markets by star-studded Super Bowl commercials or Trump supporters who were lured into buying his predatory meme coin."

The president's post on Sunday, which sent Bitcoin soaring, attracted additional scrutiny to the investments of billionaire entrepreneur David Sacks, the Trump administration's crypto czar.

Sacks "has a massive conflict-of-interest with this announcement that folks should be aware of," Derek Martin, the founder of Pathfinder Research and a board member at Campaign for Accountability, wrote on social media.

Martin noted that Sacks is "listed as the primary investor" in Bitwise, a crypto index fund manager.

"A new level of corruption," Martin wrote.

Late Sunday, Sacks said in response to criticism from Martin and others that he sold all of his crypto holdings before Trump took office in January. Sacks added that he sold his "$74k position in the Bitwise ETF" two days after the president's inauguration and insisted that he does not have "large indirect holdings" in crypto.

But the Financial Timesreported that Craft Ventures, an investment firm that Sacks founded, "retains stakes in a small number of crypto start-ups."

"Sacks is in the process of a government ethics review," FT added, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Sacks is set to chair a White House crypto summit later this week.