The Trump administration’s initiative to establish a Strategic Crypto Reserve — framed as a way to promote entrepreneurship and strengthen the US position in cryptocurrency — raises significant concerns. Rather than fostering genuine innovation, this policy resembles past government interventions in financial markets, particularly the Bland–Allison Act (1878) and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890). These nineteenth-century policies aimed to prop up silver mining interests but ultimately failed to deliver lasting economic benefits and contributed to financial instability.
In the late 1800s, the government mandated large-scale silver purchases under the guise of increasing the money supply and aiding farmers through inflation. However, the real beneficiaries were silver miners, as the policy artificially inflated demand for their product. The Bland–Allison Act required the Treasury to purchase $2 million to $4 million worth of silver monthly, while the Sherman Silver Purchase Act increased that to 4.5 million ounces per month. Rather than bolstering the economy, these interventions distorted markets, failed to achieve their inflationary goals, and contributed to economic instability — culminating in the Panic of 1893.
The administration’s Strategic Crypto Reserve mirrors these historical missteps. By accumulating large quantities of select cryptocurrencies, the government is creating artificial demand, much like it did with silver in the 19th century.
This stealth subsidy to the cryptocurrency industry risks inflating a bubble, which could lead to market distortions and crowd out genuine private-sector innovation. Just as the silver purchase programs artificially supported mining interests, the crypto reserve risks picking winners and losers in an industry that thrives on competition and rapid technological change.
Beyond the risk of artificial price inflation, the volatility of cryptocurrencies makes this strategy financially reckless. Bitcoin, despite being the most established cryptocurrency, has experienced drawdowns exceeding 50 percent multiple times in the past decade. The government’s decision to include Ethereum, XRP, and Solana in the reserve introduces additional risks, as these assets lack fixed supply limits. Unlike Bitcoin (capped at roughly 21 million) and Cardano (capped at 45 billion), Ethereum, XRP, and Solana have no hard issuance limits, making them susceptible to long-term supply inflation. While each has mechanisms to manage issuance — Ethereum’s burn mechanism, XRP’s escrow releases, and Solana’s long-term inflation schedule — none guarantee true scarcity, leaving open the possibility of long-term devaluation.
Moreover, cherry-picking specific assets for government backing is a perilous strategy. While Bitcoin has cemented itself as the dominant cryptocurrency, previous market leaders have fallen dramatically. As recently as a few years ago, Litecoin, Monero, and Dash were top-tier cryptocurrencies. Today, they rank 19th, 28th, and 149th in market capitalization respectively. The crypto industry evolves rapidly, making today’s government-selected assets potentially obsolete in the near future. The administration’s goal of encouraging cryptocurrency entrepreneurship should, in itself, be a warning — if the industry is poised for rapid innovation and change, why attempt to fix its trajectory through government intervention?
If the administration genuinely seeks to support cryptocurrency entrepreneurship, it would be better served by reducing regulatory uncertainty rather than manipulating markets through government stockpiling.
Establishing clear, consistent regulations would provide businesses and investors with the stability needed to innovate and grow. The Congressional Blockchain Caucus, a bipartisan group studying blockchain technology, represents a far more productive approach than direct government market participation. Additionally, incentivizing blockchain startups through tax breaks — as seen in Belarus’s “Decree on Development of Digital Economy”, which exempted tech firms from taxes and attracted a surge of new businesses — would be a market-driven alternative to direct intervention.
Americans should appreciate the administration’s departure from the previous government’s restrictive, adversarial stance on crypto. But the Strategic Crypto Reserve as planned risks repeating the errors of past interventions.
The Bland–Allison and Sherman Silver Purchase Acts artificially buoyed the silver market, failed to deliver broad economic benefits, and led to financial instability. Encouraging entrepreneurship requires a stable, transparent, and fair economic environment, not state-driven market manipulation that benefits a select few while exposing the broader economy to undue risk.