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8 Reasons a Strategic Crypto Reserve Is a Bad Idea

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One might think that virtually all Bitcoiners would be thrilled about the notion of the U.S. government acquiring BTC (and perhaps a basket of other cryptoassets) and effectively ratifying it as a global asset of consequence. However, I count myself among the few holdouts who don’t see the development as positive for either Bitcoin or the U.S. government itself. Here’s eight reasons why I don’t support the policy.

What is easily done is easily undone

If Bitcoiners want a reserve to last, they should want Trump to seek Congressional authorization for a purchase (as is customary for any large outlay). If it is done solely by executive fiat, the next administration will not feel bound by the policy and could trivially reverse it (and nuke the market in the process). If Bitcoiners sincerely believe it benefits the U.S. to acquire bitcoin and hold it for a long period of time, then they would have no issue insisting that the government pass a law authorizing spending for the Reserve, rather than having Trump enact the policy unilaterally.

The fact that many Bitcoiners are hoping that Trump makes the policy without asking Congress for approval shows that they are chasing a short-term pump, rather than actually being sincere about the long-term value of the Reserve for the U.S. A future Democratic administration will have no qualms about immediately divesting the Reserve.

The global reserve issuer should not disrupt itself

The U.S. is the issuer of the global reserve currency. We still don’t know how the Crypto Reserve will be positioned – as simply an investment fund, or something more inherent to the dollar such as a new commodity-based currency system like the old gold standard.

If the Crypto Reserve is contemplated as providing a new backing for the dollar, I believe this will cause significant unease in dollar and Treasury markets. Effectively, the government will be signaling that it believes it no longer has faith in the dollar system as it currently exists, and a radical change is needed. I imagine that this would cause already-high rates to rise, as the market starts to wonder whether the U.S. is contemplating a default on its debt. The government should be focused on shoring up investors’ faith in its ability to sustain its debt obligations by pursuing pro-growth and deficit-reducing policies, not toying with the entire structure of the dollar system.

Many Bitcoiners don’t buy this line of reasoning and simply want to accelerate the collapse of the dollar. I view this as a kind of financial terrorism. I don’t believe in financial accelerationism nor do I think bitcoin – or any other cryptoasset – is ready to serve as the backing of a new commodity standard for the dollar.

The U.S. already has plenty of exposure to Bitcoin

American funds and individuals hold more Bitcoin than the citizens of any other country on the planet – almost certainly by a large margin. The U.S. government already benefits from this state of affairs. When Bitcoin goes up, those Americans who realize their gains owe taxes to the government – either 20% or 40% of their gains based on how long they have held the position.

This is a meaningful point not to be overlooked. The U.S. already benefits when Bitcoin goes up, through tax realizations – more than any other country. In light of this, do we really need to pick a massive fight and insist that the U.S. government gain direct exposure for these assets, too? No one is pushing for the U.S. government to acquire Apple or NVIDIA stock. Why Bitcoin?

There is no “strategic” value in a crypto reserve

Generally, assets and commodities that the U.S. acquires at the government level are things that might be required in a pinch, and have to be accumulated ahead of time. The Petroleum Reserve is a good example, as oil is clearly an essential commodity, and in a crisis, we might not be able to acquire all the oil that we need.

We also maintain reserves of other sorts of strategic assets, such as medical supplies and equipment, rare earth minerals, helium, metals like uranium and tungsten, and agricultural commodities. These all have a clear and obvious purpose: creating a reserve that can be dipped into in a time of emergency.

We also stockpile foreign FX, in case we need to make interventions into currency markets, although these interventions are increasingly rare. There is no obvious strategic use for bitcoin (and certainly not Cardano or Ripple). Ordinary Americans do not need a “supply” of bitcoin or any other cryptoasset to support their quality of life. This might change if the entire financial system runs on a blockchain and we need the tokens for gas (the one analogous «industrial” use I could think of), but that’s not the state-of-play today. The only “strategic” use for bitcoin is simply going “long” the asset at the state level and selling it later, but you could accomplish this with any other financial asset. There’s nothing unique about bitcoin (or any other cryptoasset) in this regard.

Of course, if you’re going to ultimately back the dollar with bitcoin in some kind of neo gold standard, then it would have a strategic use (in which case you should refer back to point #2). But I don’t think that is the intent right now.

A Crypto Reserve dilutes the value proposition of Bitcoin

Mixing Bitcoin in with rival cryptoassets Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and XRP and giving them all an equal government imprimatur devalues Bitcoin and makes it look undifferentiated from these assets. Bitcoin is the only one of the bunch with a credible supply schedule and genuine decentralization at the protocol level. A crypto reserve confuses the issue and devalues Bitcoin in the public eye. Principled Bitcoiners should push for an all-or-nothing approach; either just Bitcoin, or no reserve.

Bitcoin does not need the government

I wonder what early libertarian Bitcoiners from 2012-16 would think of 2025 Bitcoiners pushing for the government to backstop the value of their coins. Beyond the confusing ideological evolution that the Bitcoin community has undergone, another point remains. Bitcoin has been one of the best performing investments in history, monetizing from nothing in 2009/10 to trillions of dollars in aggregate value in 2025. It has done all of this without government support, and, indeed, in many cases, despite overt hostility from powerful nation-states. A Crypto Reserve would transform bitcoin from an apolitical asset into the plaything of the government, subject to Washington’s political cycles. Bitcoiners were never ones to hitch their wagon to the government, and they shouldn’t start now.

It would turn Americans against Bitcoiners

Only a fraction (somewhere between 5-20%) of Americans own bitcoin, and even fewer own other cryptoassets. Many Bitcoiners are extremely wealthy due to their historical investments in the coin and others. At a time when government spending is under the microscope, using taxpayer dollars – regardless of how mechanically they are apportioned – to bolster the price of Bitcoin and other cryptoassets will be politically unpopular. Biden’s proposed student loan amnesty was met with great resistance, despite potentially applying to 43 million borrowers. Bitcoiners are a smaller bunch and even less in need of financial support from the government. This policy would undoubtedly cause an unnecessary backlash in broader society against the crypto community.

It looks self-interested

It’s no secret that Trump and his cabinet and inner circle have ownership in various cryptoassets. Trump himself has launched, or is affiliated with: an NFT project built on ETH, more than one memecoin built on Solana, and, of course, World Liberty Financial which holds an array of crypto assets. What we need from Trump is reasonable crypto policy, and based on his appointments at Treasury, Commerce, SEC, CFTC, OCC and others, it looks like he is delivering that.

However, using government resources to directly increase the value of coins that Trump (and many in his inner circle) hold leaves a sour taste. Most of us in the crypto industry have simply been asking for reasonable policy and fair rules of the road so that we can do business in the U.S. Trump is proposing going much further than this and using taxpayer dollars to speculate on the coins themselves, potentially enriching himself and his associates.

To Trump’s critics, this appears corrupt. It also makes the remainder of Trump’s pro-crypto policymaking and regulatory efforts look self-interested, rather than letting it stand on its own as good policy. A future administration could choose to throw the baby out with the bathwater, reversing all the progress the U.S. has made on crypto. The existence of the Reserve gives future regressive efforts an easy moral justification.

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Coinbase Outpaces S&P 500 With 43% June Rise as Stablecoin Narrative Grows: CNBC

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Shares of Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose 43% this month, making the firm the top performer in the S&P 500 since it joined the index at the end of last month.

June’s run is already the stock’s best since November and caps three straight monthly gains. Coinbase’s shares reached their highest level since their public debut.

COIN hit a $382 high this week before enduring a slight correction, ending the week at $353 and seeing a slight 0.7% drop in after-hours trading to $351.

The wider S&P 500 index rose roughly 5% in June as geopolitical tensions eased.

Washington’s progress on the GENIUS Act, Congress’s first rulebook for dollar-pegged stablecoins, helped shift investor focus from trading fees to stablecoin revenue.

The bill brightened the outlook for Circle, whose shares hit a record high and saw its market cap near that of Coinbase this week.

Coinbase keeps all yield on USDC balances held on its platform and nearly half of other USDC income, equal to about 99 percent of Circle’s revenue, giving shareholders indirect exposure at no added cost, CNBC reported Friday, citing analysts including Citizens’ head of financial technology research Devin Ryan.

Trading, however, remains subdued. Average daily volume on Coinbase has drifted lower since April.

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Robinhood Launches Micro Bitcoin, Solana and XRP Futures Contracts

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Robinhood (HOOD) has introduced micro futures on bitcoin (BTC), solana (SOL) and XRP in the United States., expanding its existing crypto futures offering for its nearly 26 million funded accounts.

Micro contracts need far less collateral than full-size futures, letting traders take directional positions while committing a smaller slice of capital.

The contracts offer traders more flexibility to bet on a cryptocurrency’s future price direction or hedge current positions given their smaller size.

The launch rounds out a futures suite that began with BTC and ETH in January. It also comes weeks after the firm closed its $200 million purchase of Bitstamp and finalized a $179 million deal for Canada’s WonderFi.

Robinhood’s data shows that crypto notional volumes have exploded upward over time, reaching $11.7 billion in May. The figure marks a 36% rise month-over-month, and a 65% growth year-over-year.

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Why is XRP Up Today? Trio of Catalysts Sees Token Outperform Wider Crypto Market

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XRP climbed 5.5% to $2.19 in the last 24 hours after a trio of catalysts converged to help the cryptocurrency outperform the wider cryptocurrency market.

One of the catalysts was launch of XRP micro futures on Robinhood. The contracts offer traders more flexibility to bet on the cryptocurrency’s future price direction or hedge current positions given their smaller size.

Regulatory fog also thinned. On Friday, Ripple withdrew its cross-appeal in its long-running U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit. The SEC sued Ripple back in 2020 over its XRP sales, alleging these violated securities laws. The SEC is expected to drop its own appeal, leaving last year’s ruling, ordering Ripple to pay a $125 million civil penalty to the SEC, intact. The move could lift a lid that had kept some investors on the sidelines.

On-chain data rounded out the bullish setup. The XRP Ledger logged over a 1.1 million active addresses over the past week according to crypto analyst Ali Martinez, who cited Glassnode data.

XRP’s rise saw it outperform the wider crypto market, with the broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index rising 1.7% in the last 24 hours.

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