BItcoin bounced back from a three-month low yesterday as cryptocurrencies rallied on Donald Trump’s plan to create a US strategic reserve.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency rose towards $95,000 having hit $78,273 on Friday. It later dropped back to $86,300, however.
The initial rally came after Trump vowed to ‘make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world’, and said Bitcoin and Ethereum would be at the ‘heart of the reserve’.
The fund will also include smaller tokens Solana, XRP and Cardano, Trump said ahead of the first White House Crypto Summit, which he will host on Friday.
Bitcoin tumbled last month amid disappointment that the US President had not yet followed through on his promises to loosen crypto regulation.
Its price had soared after Trump’s election win in November and rocketed to an all-time high on the day of his inauguration in January.
Crypto president: US President Donald Trump (pictured) vowed to ‘make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world’
On the campaign trail he had promised to be a ‘crypto president’ and accepted digital assets as donations.
Trump and his wife Melania also launched their own ‘meme coin’ the day before his return to the White House. Investors were hopeful that he would remove regulatory roadblocks to bring the digital currency into the mainstream following a crackdown by his predecessor Joe Biden.
But beyond a flurry of appointments of crypto-friendly officials when he took office, there has been little concrete news to buoy investors since.
That led to the infamously volatile asset plunging more than 17 per cent in February – its biggest monthly percentage fall in more than two years – and losing more than a third of its price since it topped $109,000 in January.
The President said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday evening that his executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana and Cardano. The names had not previously been announced.
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP also bounced after his social media post.
‘Trump just gave the pump that crypto traders have been holding out for,’ said Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index.
It is not clear whether US authorities will go on a crypto buying spree or fill the reserve with coins seized from criminals.
Trump has not yet provided details on how the fund will be managed. DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
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