Bitcoin surged more than 20% from last week's lows on Monday and several other cryptocurrencies also rallied sharply after US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of a new US strategic reserve that would include a range of tokens.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano. The names had not previously been announced.
Bitcoin and ether will be at the heart of this reserve, he posted on Sunday.
The post sent the world's largest cryptocurrency up by a fifth from the November lows it was trading at on Friday, helping flip sentiment on a token that has been sliding since mid-January on disappointment Trump had not followed through on pledges to loosen regulation. It was last at around $91,605, up from Friday's low of $78,273.
Ether was also up 20% from Friday's lows to $2,351, a 7% drop from Sunday's closing levels. XRP and solana were up around 30% from Friday's lowest levels, while cardano was up 60% from last week's lows. "Trump just gave the pump that crypto traders have been holding out for," said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.
"Any faith that was lost last week appears to have been restored," and new highs could be made unless there was another wave of risk-off selling, he said. Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, said it was possible the rally will extend into the first White House Crypto Summit that Trump is hosting on Friday, with the risk that the bearishness in other markets could weigh on sentiment.
While Wall Street closed higher on Friday, the recent selloff in large tech bellwethers such as Nvidia has eroded confidence in bitcoin, which some see as an alternative tech proxy. Bitcoin fell more than 17% in Feb, clocking its biggest monthly percentage fall since June 2022.
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