Trump names Bitcoin and others as part of coming ‘Crypto Strategic Reserve’

In a pair of social media posts today, President Donald Trump named some cryptocurrencies he says will be part of a Crypto Strategic Reserve being created by an executive order he signed in January. Those include Bitcoin and Ether, which he says “will be the heart of the Reserve.”

Under Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has quickly backed away from the wary stance toward cryptocurrencies it held prior to Trump’s inauguration this year. The agency has recently dropped multiple investigations and lawsuits against cryptocurrency firms that alleged securities violations.

One of the currencies Trump mentioned today, Ripple’s XRP, was the subject of a 2020 SEC lawsuit in which a judge ruled that it functioned as an unregistered security, but only when Ripple sold it to institutional investors. The SEC appealed that decision in October last year; as of this writing, that appeal is ongoing.