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- > Donald Trump signs Executive Order introducing Bitcoin Reserve
- > US Crypto Summit kicks off new era of Web3 in the White House
- > Bitcoin stumbles as Fear and Greed Index hits three-year lows
Donald Trump signs Executive Order introducing Bitcoin Reserve
It might be the biggest news of 2025.
After months of discussion, the United States is officially creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
From the moment Donald Trump was elected in November, it seemed inevitable that some sort of crypto representation would ease its way into the United States’ portfolio.
Even so, a government as economically significant as the US adding digital currencies to its holdings still seems like a fever dream. It feels like only yesterday the crypto industry bore the brunt of FTX’s collapse, putting its long-term future under the microscope.
But with Donald Trump signing an Executive Order installing a Strategic Reserve on the 7th of March, that dream has become a reality.
The new era of cryptocurrency has arrived.
Initially, President Trump and his administration will use pre-existing BTC stocks – seized from the proceeds of crime – to build the Reserve’s foundation. At the time of writing, this stands at 200,000 Bitcoins.
The separate digital asset stockpile including ETH, ADA, SOL and XRP will be built under the same conditions.
The long-term machinations of the Strategic Reserve, and whether it will buy new Bitcoin, awaits the magnifying glass of Parliament.
The market reacted somewhat paradoxically to the news, with BTC dropping nearly 5% within an hour.
Some speculated this was because the US didn’t announce they would buy Bitcoin — instead choosing to hold existing supplies.
It’s worth noting that this doesn’t tell the full story. The Executive Order does dictate the Reserve will ‘explore using Government funds’ to purchase Bitcoin, it just has to be done in a tax-neutral way.
The initial Reserve framework will likely avoid Congressional scrutiny and allows the Trump administration to build its foundation before pushing a purchase plan past the Senate. Just days later, pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis tabled a Bill that would see the US buy 1 million BTC over the next five years.
Despite market disappointment at the bureaucratic limitations of Trump’s current Reserve, it will go down as one of the biggest days in cryptocurrency history.
US Crypto Summit kicks off new era of Web3 in the White House
Last weekend saw the who’s who of cryptocurrency come together for the United State’s first official Crypto Summit.
The White House was flush with some of the industry’s biggest names. Attendees included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov and renowned Bitcoin lover Michael Saylor.
The community was abuzz as less than 24 hours prior, Donald Trump had confirmed a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. Clarity around the US crypto portfolio, further regulatory shifts and forward-thinking plans were just some of the questions many hoped would get an answer.
The primary topic of discussion was the US Bitcoin portfolio, which Trump emphasised would be a long-standing policy.
‘From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin [holder] knows very well, never sell your bitcoin.’
US President Donald Trump
Trump continued to confirm his administration’s desire to increase the US’ BTC holdings without using any taxpayer dollars.
In general, the Summit brought together some of crypto’s brightest minds to usher in a new era of Government–innovator collaboration in the United States.
Ripple Labs CEO, Brad Garlinghouse – who was also in attendance – took to social media to share his thoughts on the landmark event.
There is a tangible air of optimism emanating from some of the digital asset industry’s most important executives. Having an openly crypto-friendly government in the US may unlock some of Web3’s most significant stride forwards over the next four years.
Despite this, the broader crypto community wasn’t pleased at the Summit’s lack of concrete announcements. Aside from tokenistic speeches and slick photos, no official policy updates or roadmaps were released.
Of course, there is the potential that any major changes are yet to be disclosed. Giving credence to this was the SEC’s announcement a few days later, where acting Chair Mark Uyeda said the regulators are looking to eliminate the existing definition of ‘exchange’. Introduced in 2022, this policy means certain requirements, targeted at traditional exchanges, may haphazardly apply to decentralized exchanges and other crypto trading platforms.
Shaking up this regulation could improve the flexibility for operators in both the US DeFi and centralised exchange space.
Bitcoin stumbles as Fear and Greed Index hits three-year lows
Extreme Fear has gripped the crypto market – at least according to Coinmarketcap’s Index measuring sentiment.
The metric, which combines volatility, social media sentiment, momentum and Bitcoin dominance into a single figure, fell to 15 – also known as ‘Extreme Fear’.
This is the lowest it has ever been since Coinmarketcap started measuring it in 2023. According to Alternative.me’s index, Fear and Greed hasn’t fallen this far since TerraUSD’s collapse way back in 2022, when billions were wiped from the crypto market.
Bitcoin plummeted to $76.8k USD earlier in the week, while Ethereum (-10%), Solana (-12%) and Chainlink (-10%) all fet the pinch over the past seven days.
There’s no denying it — sentiment among investors has turned rotten.
With so much seemingly positive news coming from within the industry, what’s going on?
Some of the market’s hesistancy can be traced back to disappointment around the aforementioned ‘positive news’. Though an official Bitcoin Reserve and Government Crypto Summit are big for the industry, not as much action resulted from these events as some would’ve liked.
‘The biggest letdown has been the U.S. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, which turned out to be nothing more than a repackaging of seized FBI assets—around 200,000 BTC, just 1% of Bitcoin’s market cap—placed under the control of the Federal Reserve’.
James Toledano, COO of Unity Wallet
But of even greater concern may be the United States’ economic woes.
Donald Trump’s policies have centred around significant tariffs on US imports in an attempt to boost local production. However, such radical changes have worried financial markets, and Trump added fuel to the fire over the weekend saying the US will enter a ‘period of transition’ and that ‘short-term economic pain is likely’.
In short, some pundits think this economic policy might lead the United States straight to a recession.
It’s not all bad news, though. Anxiety is rife across all risk-on markets, and even so, BTC is still trading up 15% over the past 12 months. For nearly every other asset, investors would lick their lips at such annual returns.
Once the market gets a bit more clarity on tariffs, inflation and a potential recession in the United States, investors will be hoping Bitcoin can re-ignite its ascension past $100k USD.
Ben Knight
