Is XRP the Key to America’s Digital Asset Future? A Community Showdown

President Donald Trump created ripples in the crypto sphere earlier this week by signing an executive directive centered on digital assets that might be included in the US reserves.

While not formally sanctioned yet, the move has ignited considerable discussions within the community regarding which cryptocurrencies should be incorporated, or if it should solely be bitcoin.

The Discussion

Since Trump shifted his stance on the crypto sector last year and made numerous hopeful pledges during his election campaign, the buzz has been whether he will uphold his promises and establish a US BTC reserve.

The initial segment of that proposal would involve the US administration halting the sale of seized BTC derived from unlawful activities. However, Trump took a step further on Thursday by signing an executive order named ‘Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technologies’ to investigate the inclusion of various cryptocurrencies into the US reserve.

This announcement sent shockwaves across the community, particularly among supporters of numerous US-based initiatives and their fundamental assets, such as SOL, XRP, and ADA. A lot of advocates believe that companies like Ripple are effectively working against BTC in this regard by ‘throwing millions at politicians, trying to undermine it.’

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, denied these claims, asserting their efforts ‘are genuinely increasing the probability of a crypto strategic reserve (which includes bitcoin) materializing.’

Unless you are choosing to overlook the core tenets of the POTUS campaign (which vigorously supports American companies and technologies), our efforts are genuinely INCREASING the probability of a crypto strategic reserve (which includes bitcoin) materializing.

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 23, 2025

No XRP, Please

Ryan Selkis, the founder of Messari, joined the anti-XRP movement, asserting that the Ripple initiative is ‘toxic.’ He went on to label the project’s native token as a ‘piece of s**t,’ and noted it would be preferable to have no crypto strategic reserve than to have XRP included. Selkis concluded that BTC is the only exception and that it would be logical for it to be the sole cryptocurrency representative in that reserve.

America-First is not “American-Shitcoin First”

We’d be better off without a strategic reserve than one with “endorsed” pieces of crap like XRP.

Still, I believe Bitcoin is an exception.

1. Build different (with energy) 2. Lindy, mcap dominance, no insiders 3. Global traction https://t.co/eCNhKjpgSL

— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) (@twobitidiot) January 23, 2025

Conversely, Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson, who has been partnering with the Ripple team for some time, commented that there’s no need to ‘discredit XRP’ and suggested that the strategic reserve will commence as bitcoin-only.