Source: Tencent News "Qianwang", special author Ji Zhenyu
The crypto market is boiling again, as a tweet from US President Trump announced that he will advance the digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve initiative. Affected by this news, the crypto market saw an across-the-board rally, with Bitcoin surging in less than 1 hour to over $90,000. Additionally, other cryptocurrencies mentioned by Trump, such as Ethereum, SOL, XRP, and ADA, also experienced short-term price spikes.
The ferocious market performance is reminiscent of the past. After Trump's election as US president and the issuance of his own "Trump Coin", the crypto market had experienced a frenzy. Tencent News "Qianwang" noticed that some market participants had already positioned themselves in advance, using an initial capital of about $4 million and 50x leverage to build a long position of $200 million, making nearly $10 million in profits from this round of price surge.
However, reviewing the recent market movements related to Trump, many investors ultimately suffered heavy losses. For example, the "Trump Coin" issued three days before Trump's formal inauguration as US president has since plummeted by 80% from its peak.
Although Trump had proposed the idea of a digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve during his election campaign last year, and continued to push for it after taking office, the progress has been limited, still in the preliminary discussion and planning stage, and the detailed plan has not yet been officially released. Yet this does not seem to prevent the market from another round of speculation.
On the Eve of the Strategic Reserve Announcement, Someone Precisely Laid an Ambush with 50x Leverage Long
On the morning of March 2nd US time, President Trump suddenly posted a message on his personal social media platform Truth Social, stating that he will continue to advance the use of cryptocurrencies as a national strategic reserve.
Trump said, "The US crypto reserve will boost this critical industry, which has been under corrupt attack from the Biden administration for years. Therefore, my digital asset executive order directs the presidential working group to advance a crypto strategic reserve including XRP, SOL and ADA," Trump stated. "I will ensure America becomes the world capital of cryptocurrency. We are making America great again!"
Notably, Trump's initial tweet did not mention including Bitcoin and Ethereum in the strategic reserve, but about an hour later, he retweeted the original post, adding, "Clearly, Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with other valuable cryptocurrencies, will be at the center of the strategic reserve, and I love Bitcoin and Ethereum too."
Affected by this news, the cryptocurrencies mentioned by Trump, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, SOL, XRP, and ADA, all experienced short-term price surges.
On the eve of Trump's announcement of advancing the digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve, some people had already sensed the news and acted. An address used 50x leverage to long Bitcoin and Ethereum, with an initial capital of about $4 million, building a total position of around $200 million when Bitcoin and Ethereum were priced around $85,000 and $2,210 respectively.
Leveraged trading can amplify profits exponentially, but also losses. A 50x leverage means the position would be fully liquidated if the prices drop by just 2%.
This address managed to enter the market at or near the short-term price bottoms of Bitcoin and Ethereum. After the address opened its positions, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum remained relatively stable around their entry levels for a period.
On the morning of March 2nd US time, after Trump announced the advancement of the digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve, the prices started to surge crazily. Bitcoin rose from around $85,000 to over $94,000 in less than 2 hours, while Ethereum climbed from around $2,200 to over $2,500.
During this short-term crazy price surge, the 50x long address began to orderly close its positions and exit the market.
The address's final batch of 30 Bitcoin positions were fully closed and sold at $91,399.26 on the morning of March 2nd US time at 8:58 am.
Roughly calculated, this address made nearly $7 million in profits in less than 24 hours, a 175% return on the initial $4 million capital.
Crypto Market Frenzy Driven by Trump's Promotion Repeated Multiple Times
This short-term price surge purely driven by news is not the first time. Previously, during Trump's election campaign, he had been advocating the establishment of a digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve, and the market expected him to fulfill this promise after being elected as US president. Bitcoin then experienced a short-term surge from around $65,000 in early November to over $100,000, a new historical high.
Subsequently, Bitcoin underwent a correction, and after reaching over $100,000 again in late January, it continued to fluctuate downward, dropping to below $80,000 by the end of February.
Like a well-planned and carefully orchestrated event, just a day before Trump's announcement of the digital cryptocurrency strategic reserve, the White House officially announced that a cryptocurrency summit will be held on March 7th, seemingly preheating the market for Trump's upcoming announcement. This series of signals seems to clearly indicate that Trump's focus has shifted back to the cryptocurrency domain from previous issues like tariffs and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the market has found a reason to speculate again.
This operation is almost identical to what happened more than a month ago, just a few days before Trump's formal inauguration as US president. On the evening of Friday, January 17th US time, Trump's personal official X account suddenly posted a tweet announcing the issuance of the "TRUMP Coin". Subsequently, the TRUMP Coin price surged over 160 times in the next 15 hours, with its total market capitalization skyrocketing from zero to $30 billion.
The TRUMP Coin once reached over $70, but then the price began to decline, and is currently around $14, a drop of 80% from its peak. This dramatic rise and fall has caused heavy losses for countless investors who bought at the high.
Progress in Establishing a National Cryptocurrency Strategic Reserve is Limited
The news of the US establishing a digital cryptocurrency asset strategic reserve is the direct catalyst for the latest and previous rounds of market surges, but the actual progress has been quite limited so far.
Trump has been discussing the idea of establishing a strategic crypto reserve since his 2024 presidential campaign. Shortly after taking office as president in January 2025, he signed an executive order directing a working group to evaluate the establishment of a strategic crypto reserve, but the order did not explicitly require the US to directly set up such a reserve.
The executive order stated that the digital asset working group should "assess the potential to establish and maintain a national digital asset reserve."
The latest news this Sunday seems to indicate that Trump is further pushing for the advancement of this work. He stated that the working group should "advance" the formal establishment of the reserve. Previously, the White House had announced that the working group will hold a summit on March 7th, inviting crypto industry and government representatives to jointly discuss the matter.
Here is the English translation:Previously, Senator Cynthia Lummis had proposed a bill suggesting that the US establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. She first advocated this idea at the Nashville Bitcoin conference in July, where presidential candidate Trump also gave a speech. Lummis' proposed bill suggests authorizing the US Treasury to acquire 1 million Bitcoins over five years, which is about 5% of the total Bitcoin supply.
Currently, the legislative bodies of some US states have already put forward corresponding bills, hoping to create their own strategic crypto reserves, but most efforts have not made substantial progress.
David Sacks, the White House's crypto and AI affairs representative, is a limited partner at Multicoin Capital, which invests in Solana (SOL).
In an interview in 2021, Sacks said he has been "long" on SOL, the native token of Solana. Meanwhile, Trump's TRUMP coin is also built on Solana.
Shortly after Trump's announcement, Sacks stated on the social platform X that Trump's announcement "is consistent with his first-week executive order".
At the same time, Ripple is engaged in a years-long legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC alleges that Ripple illegally sold XRP (the native token of the Ripple-supported XRP Ledger blockchain) as an unregistered security during Trump's first term.
In recent months, Ripple has been trying to increase its influence in Washington, including making large donations to the crypto industry super PAC Fairshake, as well as funding Trump's 2025 presidential inauguration fund.
