“The US will build a crypto reserve” was a funny meme four years ago. As of Sunday, that meme is somehow creeping closer to becoming a reality. But it remains to be seen if the market truly buys the rhetoric.

Fading the Trump pump:

Last week’s bitcoin price action was pretty wild, as a Sunday Trump social post pumped BTC back above the $91k breakdown level — at least temporarily (more on that below). For the week, bitcoin moved in a nearly 20% range. Not unprecedented, but unusual.

But like all news-driven noise, this should be treated with caution. As the post came on a Sunday, a good portion of the move up was quickly faded as US markets woke up Monday. The weekend pump opened up a CME futures gap around $86k. These gaps tend to close — the Feb. 28 drop more or less filled a gap on the chart open since Nov. 12.

On bitcoin spot, $91k is still a key level. If BTC can hold the line somehow, it would make the Friday crash to sub-$79k look like a false breakdown. But I’m not holding my breath.

— Macauley Peterson

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A crypto strategic reserve is nonsensical

On Sunday morning, Trump announced on Truth Social his plans to enact a “crypto strategic reserve.”

Which assets? The anointed few: XRP, SOL, ADA, ETH and BTC and maybe more.

Markets loved it, of course. BTC jumped 6% on the day, ETH was up 5.3% and XRP rippled up 18%. But the reality is that the reserve is still just talk, pending Congressional action.

Putting aside legal issues, the idea that the US should build a crypto reserve is itself completely bizarre, and therefore should be treated with skepticism.

Countries typically establish gold or reserves in foreign currencies for reasons of economic stability and to bolster confidence in their own financial systems.

For instance, when the Swiss franc appreciated rapidly against the euro during the global financial crisis, the Swiss National Bank intervened in March by selling francs and buying euros to protect its export-driven economy.

Gold, on the other hand, serves as a hedge against fiat currency depreciation, and the largest central banks in the world buy them for that reason. Maybe you don’t buy into that thesis, but it reflects more than two thousand years of the metal’s history in being used as money.

What qualifies XRP, SOL, ADA, ETH and BTC to be national reserve-worthy?

Let’s start with the easiest: bitcoin. Bitcoin has the longest history of about 17 years, more than any other asset on Trump’s shopping list. But compared to gold, bitcoin has been around far too short to prove itself as an “inflation hedge.”

One could argue that there is sufficient empirical evidence in the history of the blocksize wars to prove the asset as being durable and resistant to change (like gold). Okay, fair enough, though still a bad idea for a strategic reserve.

ETH? Ethereum is a technological marvel, but an asset that struggles with value accrual and which is subject to a technological roadmap means the American taxpayer is effectively taking a bet on an equity-like asset, contrary to the entire purpose of a national reserve.

SOL? SOL was until last year a devastated asset, revived only by memecoin trading. That doesn’t sound like something US tax dollars should be spent on.

Cardano and Ripple? Seriously? Both chains struggle to even find product-market fit in the circular industry of crypto and don't crack the top 10 TVL page on DefiLlama, let alone having the merit to belong in a national reserve.

None of the above crypto assets are needed in a “strategic reserve” for the Fed to protect the dollar, conduct monetary intervention or strengthen the American economy.

When Trump promised to make the US the crypto capital of the world, I assumed that meant fair and generalized regulations so crypto companies could pursue permissionless innovation under a rule of law in a post-Gensler SEC regime.

This development, however, screams political cronyism of the highest order. Surely ripple and cardano did not get on that list by chance.

There’s talk that the inclusion of these altcoins in the reserve presents a major conflict of interest with the investments of Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks, though Sacks has argued that he no longer holds BTC, ETH or SOL.

It almost feels like something that was memed into existence by Twitter KOLs. It also runs contrary to all of crypto’s fundamental values. But I guess no one still cares about that these days.

— Donovan Choy

The Crypto Twitter version of internecine warfare in Ethereum circles has come to a close.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced a significant leadership restructuring. Aya Miyaguchi, who has served as executive director since 2018, previously announced her transition to the role of president. In her new capacity, Miyaguchi aims to enhance the foundation's institutional relationships and broaden the reach of its vision and culture. ​

That left the executive director position to fill. The foundation announced Saturday the appointment of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors, effective March 17.

Wang, a core researcher at the foundation for seven years, contributed significantly to the development of the Ethereum beacon chain and has been active in community-building efforts in Taiwan. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind — one of Ethereum's major execution clients — brings extensive experience in engineering and organizational development. ​

EF’s loudest critics had lobbied for former Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan to fill the position, but in a coordinated announcement, Ryan signaled he would instead join the new Etherealize project as a co-founder.

Etherealize is focused on integrating Ethereum with institutional investors and Ryan expressed his commitment to establishing Ethereum's relevance in global finance.

"The world is ready to come onchain, and we’re here to do the hard work necessary to make it happen,” he said.

These leadership changes reflect a move toward unity and strategic alignment. The EF resisted calls to get more involved on the commercial and marketing side of the movement, preferring its philosophy of “subtraction” — which centered around thoughtfully distributing power and responsibilities to avoid centralization. The staffing moves are seen as part of Ethereum's transition from an early-stage project to a robust, permissionless and censorship-resistant base layer of global financial infrastructure.

— Macauley Peterson

Calling the Builders Who Move Fast

If you’re engineering the next generation of crypto — whether it’s infrastructure, DeFi, or something entirely new — you belong on the Permissionless stage.

Speaker applications are open. If you’re a technical founder, CTO, or dev, this is your chance to share, debate, and push the space forward.

And for those ready to prove it with code? The Hackathon is your shot. $100K+ prize bounty. Investors watching. No gimmicks — just shipping.