👉 Background: In July last year, Donald Trump outlined a plan for the US to have a national bitcoin stockpile — and the price of bitcoin skyrocketed. Then, Trump announced an executive order in January calling for the formation of a group to make recommendations around crypto — and the price of bitcoin jumped again.

‍👉 What happened: Since then, Trump has been a little quiet on this ‘concept of a plan’. In fact, the price of bitcoin actually dropped ~20% from its previous peak as crypto-heads started to doubt whether this reserve was legit. But now, Trump has announced plans to implement a strategic reserve of not just bitcoin - but 5 digital currencies including Ripple, Solana, Cardano, ethereum and bitcoin.

‍👉 What else: While there are no clear details on how much or when this is all happening, the market didn’t care. The price of some of these coins jumped by more than 20%.

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‍What's the key learning?

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‍💡A strategic reserve is essentially a country’s emergency piggy bank — usually filled with things like oil, gold, or even food supplies. The idea is to have a backup in case of major world crises such as major supply chain disruptions or even geopolitical risks.

💡Given strategic reserves are end-of-world type stuff — adding digital currencies is a big move. It could change the way digital assets are viewed globally - and move crypto from a speculative investment to legitimate financial safeguard in case of emergency.

💡If the US actually follows through, it could set a precedent for other nations to do the same and further legitimise crypto as an asset class with real-world economic influence. It’s unclear when or how much will be put in the reserve, but given the US government already holds $18 billion USD of crypto seized from cybercriminals - this might be a good starting point.