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The Almighty Buck Bitcoin Government Social Networks United States

Trump Names Cryptocurrencies for 'Digital Asset Stockpile' in Social Media Post (cnbc.com) 130

Despite a January announcement that America would explore the idea of a national digital asset stockpile, the exact cryptocurrecies weren't specified. Today on social media the president posted that it would include bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana's SOL token and Cardano's ADA, reports CNBC — prompting a Sunday rally in cryptocurrencies trading. XRP surged 33% after the announcement while the token tied to Solana jumped 22%. Cardano's coin soared more than 60%. Bitcoin rose 10% to $94,425.29, after dipping to a three-month low under $80,000 on Friday. Ether, which has suffered some of the biggest losses in crypto year-to-date, gained 12%... This is the first time Trump has specified his support for a crypto "reserve" versus a "stockpile." While the former assumes actively buying crypto in regular installments, a stockpile would simply not sell any of the crypto currently held by the U.S. government.
"The total cryptocurrency market has risen about 10%," reports Reuters, "or more than $300 billion, in the hours since Trump's announcement, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company."

"A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry..." the president posted, promising to "make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World," reports The Hill: His announcement comes just after the White House announced it would be welcoming cryptocurrency industry professionals on March 7 in a first-of-its-kind summit... It's unclear what exactly Trump's crypto reserve would look like, and while he previously dismissed crypto as a scam, he's embraced the industry throughout his most recent campaign.

Trump Names Cryptocurrencies for 'Digital Asset Stockpile' in Social Media Post

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  • by Zagnar ( 722415 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:33PM (#65205853)

    Real good use of our tax dollars, thanks Donald.

    • Bah. You're just envious you're not getting rich from the scam.

      • Bah. You're just envious you're not getting rich from the scam.

        If you could get people to answer honestly, I'm sure most folks would be happy with some ethically gray easy money. Thing is, in addition to having a somewhat flexible sense of morality, you also have to be part of the inside circle (and also have some extra money kicking around to "invest", lest the rent go unpaid if things go wrong). Without insider knowledge, by the time the news of the "pump" has broken, we're already in the "dump" stage and the people in on the scam have made their money. The people

        • I think there was an episode of Malcolm in the Middle or some similar show where a teacher got scammed. The kid told him about the scam and said he should sell, but then the teacher said that he'd only be screwing somebody else.

          That level of morality is shat upon by Musk. He'd call it empathetic suicide or something.

          Hey, ChatGPT says it is Malcolm in the Middle. What a useful too, to find episodes of old shows. Totally worth destroying the world. I didn't watch the whole episode. I just caught like the

          • by Rei ( 128717 )

            Asking ChatGPT (assuming 4o) took maybe the energy of 15-30 seconds of video gaming. Such "destroying the world" :

          • The teacher was all set to use his profits to buy a sailboat and sail away into retirement. Then she revealed
            that the real-estate was photo-shopped garbage. And the teacher couldnt get out without selling the bad
            investment to someone else.

            The swindler flew away on a helicopter.

        • by Rei ( 128717 )

          A US "crypto reserve" is really the final stage of the zero-sum game. Every person who comes later bails out those who came earlier, a "greater fool". The US government is the ultimate "greater fool" possible.

          • by jythie ( 914043 )
            I suspect that this is the US being the greater fool, letting the people who were unsure how they were going to convert their holdings to USD to start cashing out with the US buying up their worthless coins.
            • Taking people's money via taxes, or borrowing with interest from the future, and spending on reimbursing a ponzi scheme like crypto, is just another mechanism that the govt transfers wealth from one group to another. Why should we be taking out debt to buy crypto from people (near all time highs)? We don't have extra money to spend on this. If we did, any excess money from tax surpluses should go to paying off the debt. That's increase the value of the dollar, just like stock buybacks. Though it seems like
              • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

                Right that is the open secret under all these policy discussion. It isn't even a both sides, or either side thing, nobody has a plan to get a cash positive federal budget.

                Nobody has a plan.

                If the say they do they are lying to delusional! There are set of cranks out there who have a plan but those plans require doing something politically impossible like eliminating medicare or shutting down the SSA without paying out the current statutory liabilities. That or they are in the 'derp we can grow and invest ou

                • I don't disagree that we hold too much debt, but debt in general is a good thing for the government, but I do worry that far too many american's think that it means not carrying any debt. Over a longer scal that means the government would issue less and less bonds at lower and lower rates.

                  Foreign governments and central banks hold large amounts of US Treasuries as reserves. The reduced supply could affect the dollar's status as the world's primary reserve currency. The financial system relies on Treasury bo

                  • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

                    Yeah I agree totally. I don't think it would even be a good idea to pay off the national debt.

                    I am more talking about the deficit. Which I think we should as nation be structuring towards a budget that is balanced at least over time. That is we should have surpluses some years so other years when we need to make major outlays for whatever reason we can without having to balloon the debt to do it. The treasury should have cash on hand for these things.

                    That probably means continuing to issue bonds even wh

                    • Here's Trump's play, and you know I'm right because it is monumentally STUPID and GREEDY , so you know that's what he's going to do.
                      He's going to go to Fort Knox to ogle our gold, then revalue our holdings, creating money from thin air. Then he's going to use that to justify an enormous Trumpcoin/Bitcoin/Dogecoin buy to create a US cryptocurrency "reserve".
                      Even Auric would blush.
                      BIGLY.
        • This is where I always land in the stock market. I don't play stock roulette anymore because the insider trading is just too flagrantly against anyone not on the inside. I'm always locked of selling because the market closed, usually too late anyway. Any individual risking their retirement money on stocks or crypto is going to lose big unless they're insider trading. Taking money from Bezos or Musk? Sure, I'd be glad to. Taking money from everyone else? No thanks. Maybe I'm not American enough to want to p

      • Bah. You're just envious you're not getting rich from the scam.

        Bah. You're just a fucking idiot. Some of us want our government to remain solvent.

    • by c ( 8461 )

      It's cute how you still think they're your tax dollars, rather than his tax dollars.

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:35PM (#65205859)

    You know it will fail [time.com]. And that isn't the all inclusive list. There are other business failures he is directly responsible for. When he jumps in, it's time to jump out.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Does Trump actually have any business successes that are not based on fraud? With his handling of the "negotiations" with Putin, were he essentially gave everything away without any advantages, I am beginning to think Trump does not know how to make deals. Like, at all.

      • by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @07:07PM (#65205943)

        He had a successful TV show.

        He's a Russian asset. What else is there to say?

        • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

          "He had a successful TV show."

          No, he did not. Trump was an actor on someone else's successful TV show.

          • Trump starred in and co-produced the show. I think that qualifies as his show to a reasonable extent.

            The point being, a shitty but successful show is his only successful non-con business venture.

            • I don't think Trump co-produced it, he just took the credit. If he'd actually co-produced it it wouldn't have been successful.
          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Indeed. Well, is there _anything_ that Trump can do well? Except manipulating a specific class of voters, that is. I mean, he is not even a good liar, prolific as he is in that activity.

        • He had a successful TV show.

          Mark Burnett had a successful TV show.

          Trump just showed up for eight hours per season and recorded his segments.

      • He only thinks he's a master dealmaker because he ran a big business that pushed a lot of little businesses around. He never had to negotiate a deal where he didn't have an overwhelming power advantage before becoming President.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          That makes a lot of sense. So essentially the only thing Trump is good at is being a bully. Well, he just demonstrated that publicly.

          But then, he does not really seem to be good at being a bully either. Two people against one, the one not a native speaker, the two on their home territory, the wohle thing probably planned and the intended victim still did not cower.

      • by znrt ( 2424692 )

        With his handling of the "negotiations" with Putin, were he essentially gave everything away without any advantages

        flashing news: the us is losing yet another (proxy) war (the nth in a row, btw). trump just didn't want to be the loser, so he blames everything on biden and shuts it down. this operation has been run under every president since clinton, biden clearly set it into overdrive but trump himself provided javelins so ukranians could bomb other ukranians in donbas in 2017/18. if it had worked and russia had been crippled/toppled/fragmented/whatever he wouldn't be asking for a deal, but a medal. he won't get any ad

    • If he plans to use taxpayer money (or most likely, debt spending) to buy cryptocurrency, that technically can't fail. It's a dumb idea and a waste of money, but if the goal is to have the US government become a cryptocurrency bag holder, that's an easy achievement to unlock.

      Cryptocurrency itself probably isn't going away anytime soon. Its value certainly could (and probably will) crater, but there's too many true believers (and criminals) for us to be lucky enough for it to ever go away completely. Worst

      • It's always a game of 3D chess with these folks.

        With Trump it's more like checkers. And he ignores the rules. And he keeps tipping over the board.

        • by rahmrh ( 939610 )

          Checkers is a bit too complicated for T.

          Tick-Tac-Toe maybe, but still tipping over the board because he loses even when going first...

      • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        The other possibility is the plan is to leave the dollar holders as the bag holders.

        Run the deficit up enough.

        Insist the dollar denominated debts will only be paid in dollars

        Let the dollar continue to plummet in value and the federal credit worthiness continue to decline.

        Announce that taxes on various crypto-coin denominated actives must be paid in the same coin.

        Just start using the new crypto reserves to pay new federal contracts (because nobody wants dollars any more).

        Effectively ditch a lot of statutory

    • To be fair his crypto projects have so far been wildly successful.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      He's just trying to obliquely pump his own shitcoins. Like everything else in which el Bunko gets involved, look for the money trail into his pocket. He wants to be as wealthy as Elmo.

  • Good (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:42PM (#65205877)

    I'm sure this will bring the cost of eggs down!

    • by decep ( 137319 )

      I mean, it's one egg, Michael. How much could it cost? 10 bitcoins?

    • once we start paying for eggs in BTC price will fluctuate daily +/-20% - at least we will be decentralized while all transactions will run thru IRS ledger.
  • No surprise (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pop69 ( 700500 ) <billy AT benarty DOT co DOT uk> on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:42PM (#65205879) Homepage
    Got to keep pumping the bubble to continue the grift
    • And such grift. Consider #TRUMP. Untraceable bribes from any foreign despot or anyone outside the US sphere of influence, but it gets better. Mega-donors, foreign and domestic, can buy #TRUMP as a legitimate investment. POTUS cashes out and the value crashes. The mega-doners write off the cash loss (with tax deductions) as just a bad investment while benefiting from the gained influence. All legal and totally indistinguishable from bribery. (And you have to expect that the named "reserves" already ha
      • The bribes are out in the open:

        "SEC halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions"

        https://popular.info/p/breakin... [popular.info]

        • None of these are "bribes" in an illegal sense, they're all just investments in crypto. It's not a crime to make a bad crypto investment - or making a good one if you look at the Trump side of the equation. And good luck proving that his $30M investment had any influence on the SEC dropping the investigation. It's would tax credulity to suggest that there was not, but that doesn't amount to proof.
          • by AvitarX ( 172628 )

            It sounds like you think it was a bribe in an illegal sense (and I definitely do).

            I agree that there's unlikely to be proof and that even if there is, I doubt it'll be investigated.

            But that doesn't mean it wasn't an illegal bribe, just that it's not provable.

          • Even if they're not bribes they're at least violations of the emoluments clause, although the legal system is too slow to bring a case on that against a President within a single term as we saw last time. Even if he does stay in office for more than 4 years so that the case has time to proceed against him, the immunity granted to him by the Supreme Court would make such a case pointless, just as with any bribery case presumably.

            • Even if they're not bribes they're at least violations of the emoluments clause

              Probably not because POTUS could make the argument that he does not have direct control over the organizations that are running these crypto funds. In four years thye'll be a nestegg waiting which will be a complete surprise! Don't misunderstand me, the level of corruption in US politics is almost literally incredible, this, "campaign contributions" , junkets for supreme court justices, there's a huge list. It's just that this level of corruption is completely legal.

      • Transactions on Solana are traceable. It is not a privacy chain.

  • by thygate ( 1590197 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:44PM (#65205883)
    U.S. President pumping minor cryptocurrencies while his kids cash in ..

    https://x.com/BitcoinNewsCom/status/1896231949972431182
  • How much owned? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dirk ( 87083 ) <dirk@one.net> on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:45PM (#65205891) Homepage

    Do we want to take an guesses how much President Musk and Trump invested in these before making the announcement?

    • Re:How much owned? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <(gameboyrmh) (at) (gmail.com)> on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:58PM (#65205923) Journal

      Trick question, nobody will ever know if they launder it correctly.

    • Do we want to take an guesses how much President Musk and Trump invested in these before making the announcement?

      Let me try: nothing.
      Elon doesn't need the money and Trump never spends his own.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Elon doesn't need the money

        Greed has no upper bound.

      • by dirk ( 87083 )

        Elon doesn't need the money and Trump never spends his own.

        Is that why Elon fought so hard to get his $46 billion payday from Tesla. HE doesn't need it, but he still wants it. And Trump will surely use any money he can get his hands on, especially for a grift like this one.

      • Elon doesn't need the money

        How in the fuck do people get as stupid as you?
        Help me fucking understand, please.

        Do you think that dude acquired his net worth by not trying to accrue more money long after he had enough?
        Fucking hell. Where do you lobotomy patients come from?

  • fjo3 was right :-(

    https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

  • So happy Republicans have finally listened to their own complaints about Democrats and got the government to stop picking winners and losers. /s

  • This would actually be an interesting experiment. All crypto that the US seizes is being held for a very long time. Two things ought to happen:

    (1) the value at seizure is recorded and tracked from thereon out. The data are publicly available.

    (2) We all watch how long it would take to steal any of these assets. Think if it as a test portfolio. Except with real crypto (lol, "real" crypto).

    Benefits: long-term data on crypto in a real-life scenario, without really harming anybody (see El Salvador!). And an ongo

  • Stockpiling vast national funds in things whose values can fluctuate wildly and be easily stolen -- oh, wait ...

  • Incomplete (Score:5, Funny)

    by coop247 ( 974899 ) on Sunday March 02, 2025 @08:20PM (#65206041)
    A crypto reserve is useless without a matching unicorn sanctuary.
  • Bitcoin rose 10% to $94,425.29

    LOL! Hadn't looked in a while, but burst out laughing when I read that! The fact it rose 10% to $94K, well below that magical $100K+ it used to be!

    This whole thing wreaks of manipulation.

  • Use tax payer dollar to pump the crypto and rug pull, then followed by establishing sovereign wealth fund (again funded by debt) to pump and dump the stock market. These guys are looting in our face and MAGA is just saying thank you more please
  • by muffen ( 321442 ) on Monday March 03, 2025 @01:37AM (#65206341)
    Really nice to see that crypto currencies are fulfilling the initial goal for which they were created; to be free from government influence!
  • Pump and dump for the already wealthy elite
  • Whoever did this knew what was coming.

    https://x.com/BitcoinNewsCom/s... [x.com]

    Didn't hold for a lot of the upward movement, but the entry timing was impeccable.

    • Whoever did this knew what was coming.

      https://x.com/BitcoinNewsCom/s... [x.com]

      I find it hilarious how it's put as a surprise/question whether it happened:

      INSIDER TRADING ON TRUMP'S CRYPTO RESERVE ANNOUNCEMENT?!

      As if it was some sort of mystery instead of a knowable fact.

  • ... keeps destroying the ecosystem.

  • and if feb. 31st ever rols around they can keep all the profits to. Fairs fair.
  • Crypto is not legal tender and I for one will never accept it. They've tried. I always have some wise-ass that wants to pay me in crypto. I not only demand actual currency; but the minute they try to pay with crypto their contracts are terminated and outstanding payment is demanded *in cash*.

    The people paying in crypto are only doing it to fuck the person they're paying. It's no better than theft. It might be worse than theft.

    • I wouldn't be surprised if govt bond paybacks are offered in crypto only. Like hey lets just use funny money to pay off maturing bonds! win win. what could go wrong.
      I'd like to think that massive lawsuits are being prepared at the moment, but that's being really optimistic considering that all 3 branches of govt are broken currently.

  • So, we started out doin' da punchcards, the horses, and the protection schemes--now da boss says we ought do the crypto, you know, and throw a little muscle around justa make sure it sticks right? He got ridda Ness and the other G-men, so who's gonna stop him how?

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