President Donald Trump’s announcement of a US crypto strategic reserve, comprising a basket of digital assets, has stirred debate among industry leaders. Many argue that Bitcoin (BTC) should be the sole reserve asset.

This debate follows Trump’s executive order on digital assets, which directed the Presidential Working Group to establish the reserve.

A Divisive Selection? Experts Debate Trump’s US Crypto Reserve

According to the official announcement, the proposed crypto reserve would include Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and other digital assets. The initiative aims to strengthen the US as a global leader in crypto.

Notably, the announcement triggered a substantial rally for the coins. Yet, experts remain sharply divided over the choice of assets included in the reserve.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, commented on Trump’s strategic crypto reserve plan. In the latest post on X (formerly Twitter), he shared his thoughts on asset allocation.

“Just Bitcoin would probably be the best option – simplest, and clear story as successor to gold,” the post read.

Nonetheless, if diversification is necessary, he suggested using a market cap-weighted index of crypto assets to ensure neutrality. Despite considering both options, Armstrong emphasized that a Bitcoin-only reserve would be the easiest path forward.

Investor and author Fred Krueger also supported a market-weighted approach for the proposed crypto reserve. 

“The Strategic Crypto Reserve should be Market Weighted, like the SP500,” he stated.

He outlined a suggested allocation, excluding foreign assets and stablecoins, with Bitcoin at 75%, followed by Ethereum at 12.4%, XRP at 5.7%, Solana at 3.1%, Dogecoin (DOGE) at 1.4%, and Cardano at 1.0%. Smaller allocations were designated for Litecoin (LTC), Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), and Cosmos (ATOM).

Meanwhile, many in the crypto community voiced disappointment. Jeff Park, head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise, was among those advocating for a Bitcoin-only reserve.

“Huge political miscalculation by Trump in underestimating just how crucial it was for the Strategic Reserve to focus solely on Bitcoin,” Park posted.

He warned that including altcoins with unclear national significance risks perceptions of insider dealing, even if unfounded. Park also noted that while Bitcoin should be the only strategic reserve asset, broader crypto adoption can still be supported from an investment perspective.

Even long-time Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff acknowledged the logic behind a BTC reserve. Despite his disagreement, he compared it to the gold reserve, recognizing Bitcoin as “digital gold.” However, he criticized the inclusion of XRP, questioning its necessity in the crypto reserve.

“But what’s the rationale for an XRP reserve? Why the hell would we need that?” Schiff remarked.

Alex Xu, a research partner at Mint Ventures, argued that Trump made a politically motivated decision to reward projects that financially backed him. He called the move an “advertising slot” within Trump’s presidential powers.

“However, in the long run, pushing assets like ADA and XRP as reserve holdings is absurd. It undermines the legitimacy of BTC as a strategic reserve and further reduces the chances of passing a BTC reserve bill at the federal level,” he said.

He also pointed to the Republicans’ narrow House majority. Therefore, he suggested that this makes it unlikely that legislation including SOL, ADA, and XRP in national reserves would pass.

Xu suggested the only feasible option would be a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Treasury. This would allow Trump to buy these assets without congressional approval.

“But how likely is that? How much would SOL, XRP, and ADA need to funnel into Trump’s circle for him to issue an executive order using taxpayer money to buy them? Trump’s style is about making big headlines with minimal effort. He won’t invest heavily or take on major risks without significant personal gain,” he questioned.

Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX, took a more critical stand and dismissed Trump’s crypto reserve proposal as rhetoric.

“Nothing new here. Just words,” he claimed.

He argued that without congressional approval to borrow funds or revalue gold, the government lacks the resources to buy Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

In the past few days, the price of Bitcoin has been under significant bearish pressure, falling by more than 10% in the past week. The US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) registered significant withdrawals in the same period, begging the question of whether the funds are responsible for the market downturn.

The spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds ended the run of significant daily outflows on Friday, February 28, with nearly $100 million added in value to close the week. However, it might be too early to tell whether this latest capital influx to these crypto-based products represents a shift in investor sentiment.

Bitcoin ETFs Lose $3.2 Billion In Eight Days

According to the latest market data, the US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total daily net inflow of $94.34 million on Friday. This latest capital inflow put an end to the funds’ eight-day streak of consecutive net outflows.

The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (with the ticker ARKB) was responsible for a substantial portion of the day’s total inflow, posting  $193.7 million in capital influx. ARKB was followed by Fidelity Wise Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) on Friday, adding more than $176 million to its net assets to close the week.

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and Grayscale Mini Trust (BTC) were the only other exchange-traded funds that saw net inflows ($4.57 and $5.59 million, respectively) on Friday. BlackRock’s IBIT (the largest Bitcoin ETF by net asset) accounted for most of the total withdrawals ($244.5 million), continuing its recent trend of outflows.

Source: SoSoValue

The $94.34 million single-day net influx did little to alleviate the US-based Bitcoin ETFs’ weekly performance, which stood at a record negative outflows of over $2.61 billion. Up until the past Friday, the last time the US Bitcoin ETF market saw a daily net positive inflow was on Friday, February 14.

More than $3.265 billion was withdrawn from the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds within these eight days. Most notably, the Bitcoin ETFs registered over $1.1 billion in its daily net outflow on Tuesday, February 25 — the first time withdrawals have ever crossed the billion-dollar mark since launch.

Bitcoin Price And The Spot ETFs

There is undeniably a relationship between the performance of the spot Bitcoin ETFs and the BTC price. According to CryptoQuant’s Head of Research Julio Moreno, exchange-traded funds have disappeared as a source of demand growth for Bitcoin so far in 2025 relative to 2024.

The net cumulative inflows into Bitcoin ETFs on day 58 of 2025 stand at 12,100 Bitcoin ($1.7 billion), which pales in comparison to 128,700 Bitcoin ($6.3 billion) in 2024. This trend somewhat explains the Bitcoin price struggles since the start of this year.

As of this writing, BTC is valued at around $85,400, reflecting a 1.5% price increase in the past 24 hours.

The price of BTC on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

Following a price crash to below $80,000 last week, Bitcoin has experienced some market recovery over the past 48 hours, rising by over 7.5% to trade above $86,000. Amid this market rebound, crypto market expert Ali Martinez has spotted the most critical support level for the premier cryptocurrency at the moment.

Bitcoin Faces ‘Air Gap’ Below $83K – A Breakdown Could Be Brutal

In an X post on Saturday, Martinez shared a puzzling insight on the Bitcoin market. Using the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) metric partitioned at all-time highs, the analyst has identified $83,440 as the most vital Bitcoin support zone.

Generally, the URPD is an on-chain metric that shows the price levels at which unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) last moved, thereby measuring how much Bitcoin was transacted at different price levels. Each bar on the URPD chart represents a price range, and the height of the bar indicates the number of BTC transacted at that level.

Therefore, the URPD can be used to identify potential support and resistance levels as it would show if a significant amount of BTC was acquired or sold at a specific price level.

According to Martinez’s analysis, URPD data from Glassnode shows that investors acquired 171,693 BTC (0.87% of total supply) at $83,440.72, converting this price level into a strong support zone. This is because bitcoin bulls are likely to step in and acquire more BTC at this level in any case of a retest.

However, there is a notable air gap between $72,000 – $82,000 with low levels of UTXO recorded in this price range. Thus, a decisive fall below $83,440 will result in a further price decline due to the lack of demand in the immediate lower price ranges.

Bitcoin RSI Backs Rebound Quest – More Gains Ahead?

In another analysis post on the BTC market, Martinez has hinted at the potential for further price gains amidst the ongoing price recovery. According to the crypto expert, Bitcoin has historically recorded a price rebound after its Relative Strength Index( RSI) went below 30.

The RSI measures the momentum of price movements and determines if an asset is overbought (above 70) or oversold (below 30). Martinez states that Bitcoin’s RSI has recently touched 24 in the oversold zone suggesting a rebound to reclaim previous high price levels may occur according to historical data.

At press time, Bitcoin trades at $86,383 after rising by 2.32% in the past 24 hours. Following the price correction in the past week, BTC remains at 21.02% off from its all-time at $109,114.

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview