White House “Crypto Czar” David Sacks said the market is “reading a little bit too much” into President Donald Trump’s mention of Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and XRP for the US Digital Asset Stockpile.

During an interview with Bloomberg Technology, Sacks said:

“The President just mentioned the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap. So I think people are just reading into this a little bit too much, he just mentioned the top five.”

He also revealed that the stockpile includes measures to stake or sell the altcoins held in it.

Altcoin audit

Sacks said the US government will audit its crypto holdings and check which altcoins are stored with the authorities. After sorting the altcoin amounts, the government will move every coin besides Bitcoin (BTC) to the Stockpile for safekeeping.

Sacks estimated that the US currently holds roughly 200,000 BTC and some Ethereum (ETH), but he is unsure about the rest.

On March 2, Trump mentioned SOL, ADA, and XRP when discussing creating a “Crypto Strategic Reserve.” It formally became the US Digital Asset Stockpile on March 6, when the President signed an executive order on the matter while simultaneously creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Staking and rebalancing 

Sacks highlighted that Scott Bessent, Secretary of the US Treasury, will then exercise “responsible stewardship” over the altcoins held by the Stockpile. 

This includes discretion to rebalance the altcoin portfolio in the best interest of US citizens and potentially staking. 

Sacks explained:

“The Secretary of the Treasury and his team will be able to exercise portfolio management and responsible stewardship. And yes, that could include staking, it could include rebalancing, it could include sales.” 

However, he clarified that this rationale will not be applied to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. 

The Reserve consists of Bitcoin seized through criminal and civil forfeiture, preventing its sale, and Sacks said the US wants a long-term strategy to maximize the value of its BTC holdings.

While highlighting that the US sees Bitcoin as “scarce, valuable, and strategic to hold” as a long-term reserve asset, he said:

“The Bitcoin we want to keep long-term, so there is a difference there in objective. With the Reserve, the goal is the long-term preservation; with the Stockpile, the goal is responsible stewardship, portfolio management of assets.”

Mentioned in this article

Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson has taken a swipe at crypto exchange Coinbase for its failure to mention the platform in its 2023 market outlook report. Notably, the report by Coinbase overviewed themes likely to dominate the crypto market in 2023 after an extended winter in 2022. 

In this line, in a tweet on December 21, the Ethereum (ETH) co-founder slammed Coinbase for not incorporating Cardano, terming the omission as ‘pretty sad.’ 

“Not a single mention of Cardano. Pretty low and pretty sad. I honestly expected better,” he said. 

Hoskinson’s disappointment with Cardano’s omission from the report aligns with his previous sentiments, where he has argued that the platform is not receiving sufficient credit amid the ongoing network developments. 

Hoskinson on Cardano attacks

For instance, the Cardano founder had earlier warned that the network would likely be attacked after Ethereum shifted to the proof-of-stake (PoS) following the Merge upgrade. According to Hoskinson: 

“Now begins the Era of everyone assuming that all Proof of Stake works like Ethereum’s Proof of Stake. The maxis will attack Cardano for slashing and label all the Ethereum problems as ours.”

Coinbase 2023 outlook 

Elsewhere, in the report, Coinbase projected that moving into 2023, institutional investors will continue increasing their position in the crypto space alongside the emergence of creative destruction that will likely usher in a new cycle for the digital assets markets.

“However, it is not all bad news. This environment has helped cryptocurrencies pull back from their speculative fervor and paves the way for new innovations in the asset class,” Coinbase said. 

At the same time, the exchange stated that the crypto regulatory landscape will likely become clear in 2023, led by institutions’ demand for better governance. 

Hoskinson’s decision on XRP 

In the meantime, Hoskinson has come under from the crypto community, specifically XRP fans, who accused him of siding with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case with Ripple. 

In this line, as reported by Finbold, Hoskinson resolved not to comment on any topic regarding XRP and Ripple over what he termed vicious attacks from the community. 

In spite of its absence from the report,  Cardano is undergoing significant development on different fronts as the platform aims to increase the adoption of cryptocurrencies. For instance, Cardano has recorded growth in the number of staking addresses and smart contracts.