Trump’s plan for a U.S. crypto reserve, including altcoins, has sparked controversy. As industry leaders meet at the White House on March 7, the administration may rethink its approach.

In the whirlwind of blunt announcements coming from the White House, one in particular shook the crypto space. On March 2, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that his Working Group on Digital Assets had been directed to add three altcoins—Solana’s SOL, Cardano’s ADA, and Ripple’s XRP—to the U.S. strategic crypto reserve. In a follow-up post, he clarified that BTC and ETH would “obviously” be at the heart of the reserve.

The announcement triggered a market-wide surge, pushing total crypto market capitalization up 12% to $3.15 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap. But the excitement didn’t last. Within two days, prices dropped lower than before the announcement. Since then, the market has recovered slightly to $2.95 trillion, yet uncertainty remains.

Cardano is indeed the most puzzling choice. Despite launching in 2017 and being relatively established by crypto standards, it has struggled to differentiate itself. The Cardano ecosystem lacks major projects, with only $558 million in total value locked (just 0.3% of the $169 billion DeFi market) and $22 million in stablecoins (a mere 0.01% of the $224 billion total)

Source: MARKETSCREENER