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U.S. Crypto Strategic Reserve More Likely, Further Details Needed: Citi

The President announced that XRP, SOL, BTC, ETH and ADA would be included in the strategic reserve.

Crypto market to stay highly correlated to stocks, Citi says. (Miquel Parera/Unsplash)
U.S. cryptocurrency strategic reserve more likely, further details needed: Citi. (Miquel Parera/Unsplash)

What to know:

  • A crypto strategic reserve in the U.S. is more likely following comments by the President over the weekend, the report said.
  • Citi said the U.S. government buying crypto would add to the legitimacy of the asset class.
  • Further clarity about the selection criteria for which tokens are to be included in the reserve would be helpful, the report said.

A U.S. crypto strategic reserve appears more likely after President Trump's announcement over the weekend, Wall Street bank Citi (C) said in a research report on Monday.

The President announced that XRP, solana (SOL) and cardano (ADA) would be included in a strategic reserve, and later added bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) to the list of assets.

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"The announcement of further plans for the U.S. government potentially to become a strategic holder of digital assets would add to the perceived legitimacy" of the asset class, wrote analyst Alex Saunders.

Citi noted that the U.S. government currently holds about $19 billion in cryptocurrencies, mainly in bitcoin, versus $750 billion in gold.

The large majority of the government's holdings from seizures are in bitcoin, which means that is likely that the accumulation of other digital assets would be funded by open-market buys, the report said.

Still, "selection criteria are not currently clear," and pre-announcing such investments can move prices against an investor, the bank said, adding that this happened to the U.K. government with gold in the late 1990s.

Additional clarity on the selection criteria for which tokens are to be included in the reserve would provide more support, the bank said.

Broker Bernstein said the Federal Reserve could issue debt or sell some of its gold reserves to fund cryptocurrency purchases, in a report last month.

Read more: U.S. Crypto Task Force to Focus on Delivering National Bitcoin Reserve: Bernstein

Will Canny

Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He's now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.

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