Article Author: Yohan Yun Article Compilation: Block unicorn

On March 2, when US President Donald Trump announced plans to form a cryptocurrency reserve, the US cryptocurrency industry finally got what it wanted. But the decision did not spark much celebration, but instead rebounded—not from conventional opponents of traditional finance or regulators, but from the inside of the cryptocurrency world.

The dispute stems from the choice of reserve assets. During the campaign, Trump promised to create a “Bitcoin Reserve”, which made Bitcoin inclusion and to some extent Ethereum inclusion amid expectations. However, the addition of Ripple, Solana and Cardano has divided the industry.

These three assets have their own problems, from centralization issues to doubts about practical application scenarios. Proponents highlight their technological advancements and market potential, but skeptics believe they lack the stability, institutional trust and global acceptance required for reserves.

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss was one of the people who were surprised by Trump's decision. Source: Cameron Winklevoss

The excitement surrounding this announcement was short-lived. All five cryptocurrencies initially experienced price increases, but quickly fell back to pre-announcement levels, with a slight rebound as of this writing. XRP and ADA are exceptions, they did not fall below pre-announcement levels, but were also not immune to the violent volatility.

The three selected altcoins each bring different characteristics. Let’s analyze why they were selected and why their inclusion caused controversy.

Solana is fast and low-cost, but is well-known for Meme coins

Ethereum leads in total locked value (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi). According to DefiLlama, Ethereum accounts for about 52% of the market share and TVL reaches $50.59 billion. This number does not include its second-layer network, such asBase and Arbitrum, these networks, as scaling solutions on Ethereum, remain part of their broader ecosystem.

Solana ranks second with a DeFi TVL of $7.32 billion. The network has long been called the "Ethereum Killer", a term used to refer to blockchains designed to challenge Ethereum's dominance. Throughout 2024 and early 2025, Solana appears to have made progress with its high throughput (which is able to process thousands of transactions per second).

At the same time, developers have basically solved their long-standing network outage problem, allowing the network to make full use of the large amount of traffic brought about by the Meme coin boom.

Solana ranks second in the industry in DeFi TVL, but is still far from Ethereum. Source: DefiLlama

Fund managers applied for SOL-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which has also become the preferred platform for characters to launch or support cryptocurrency projects—mainly through Meme Coin.

Recently, Solana's Meme craze has become chaotic. Sensational live broadcasts aimed at pushing up the price of tokens, along with widespread scams, carpet pulls and robot-driven transactions, have raised concerns about the sustainability of the industry. As doubts intensify, the number of new tokens issued on Solana continues to decline.

Influential figures raise concerns about Solana's risk-capital impact. U.S. Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden criticized Solana's reliance on venture capital in November, suggesting it hurts the decentralization of the network. He described Solana as “born in prison”, suggesting that his reliance on venture capital funds could limit its autonomy and consistency with the fundamental principles of blockchain.

TYMIO founder Georgii Verbitskii tells us: "These assets, like any other token, are not real reserve assets. Incorporating them into the U.S. cryptocurrency reserves is as casual as bringing Nvidia stocks into strategic reserves."

He added: "While sovereign wealth funds, such as Norwegian funds, invest in stocks for long-term returns, their purpose is different from reserves, which should be based on generally recognized, decentralized assets. Bitcoin is the only reasonable option for such reserves. ”

Slow and robust: Cardano is still in the competition

Cardano adopts a slow and robust strategy. The network is often criticized for its slow feature launch compared to other major blockchains, but its supporters believe that its peer-reviewed, research-driven strategy will eventually succeed.

However, so far, this cautious approach has left Cardano behind in a fast-growing industry. Users flock to chains that make them feel safe or see the maximum profit potential—just like Solana’s Meme coin craze has attracted a lot of attention—which means Cardano has struggled to keep up.

Artemis data shows that on March 4, Cardano recorded less than 40,000 daily active users, while Solana had more than 5 million daily active users—although Solana is also under severe scrutiny for rampant robotic activity.

Cardano's daily active address. Source: Artemis

Cardano's key advantage over networks such as Solana is decentralization. Although the project initially relied heavily on the private entity IOHK, founded by Charles Hoskinson, it has transitioned to a community-driven model. The Plomin hard fork in January activated a fully decentralized governance mechanism for ADA holders, and then established its on-chain constitution in February.

Director in the University of EdinburghCardano was named the most decentralized blockchain in 2023. The network leads the Satoshi coefficient, which is used to measure the degree of decentralization by determining the minimum number of entities required to control 51% of the network.

Big companies use XRP, but centralization issues still exist

XRP has good reasons to be included in the cryptocurrency reserves, according to Vugar Usi Zade, chief operating officer of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget. He told us: “XRP is already the first choice for cross-border payments, and many major financial institutions use it to simplify transactions.”

XRP provides financial institutions and individuals with faster and cheaper transactions compared to traditional financial systems. Several major entities, including American Express, SBI and Siam Commercial Bank, have tested or integrated XRP into their cross-border payment solutions.

The network has long been criticized for being more centralized than cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. One of the main reasons for this perception is that Ripple controls a large portion of the supply of XRP. When cryptocurrencies were created, 100 billion tokens were pre-mined, and as of March 5, more than 37 billion tokens were still locked in custody.

Source: ZachXBT

Nevertheless, there are arguments against the centralization statement. Over time, Ripple has reduced its own number of verification nodes, allowing third-party organizations to play a greater role in the network verification process.

In addition, XRP transactions do not require Ripple's approval because the network runs independently and the transactions complete within seconds. Ripple has also repeatedly emphasized its legal separation from XRP Ledger, saying it does not control XRP.

Bitcoin is a clear front-runner, but even it has non-believer

The three tokens—XRP, SOL, and ADA— each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but their common feature is that they are all native American projects.

According to Bitget's Zade:

"Honestly: none of them have the institutional trust or liquidity level of Bitcoin. This volatility can be a problem, especially for assets designed to be a stable part of the reserve."

While Bitcoin is a clear leader in inclusion in US strategic cryptocurrency reserves, some believe that even Bitcoin poses significant risks. Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, believes that the value of Bitcoin is completely speculative, and its role as a reserve asset may make it a hostile primary target.

He told us: "If quantum computing becomes a reality, it could break the crypto security of Bitcoin, making it worthless overnight. Given the speed of technology development, it is a real risk. What happens if hostile develops quantum computing power and decides to target Bitcoin?"

Although Trump's cryptocurrency reserve plan has been announced, it still requires Congress to be approved before it becomes formal. Meanwhile, there are speculations that more details will be revealed at the cryptocurrency summit held at the White House on March 7.

Key figures including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor have been invited to attend, suggesting that the event may further reveal the digital asset strategy.