Forward Guidance Newsletter Segment

Many in the US woke up Wednesday to Bitcoin back above $90,000.

After Donald Trump mentioned five tokens in his Sunday post about a crypto reserve, prices soared, with BTC included (despite confusion regarding why this wouldn’t be a BTC-only reserve).

Bitcoin rose to about $95,000 on Sunday but lost nearly all those gains by Monday, trading in the mid-80s for much of Tuesday.

The early Wednesday surge wasn’t due to Trump’s Congress address Tuesday night; he did not mention BTC then. Instead, it followed comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who reportedly said a bitcoin strategic reserve is “something the president’s interested in.” He added, “I think you’re going to see it executed on Friday.”

Lutnick, ex-CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, previously noted that traditional finance firms would go “headfirst” into bitcoin when the regulatory environment improves. He mentioned that tokens outside of BTC could be treated “positively, but differently” than the largest crypto asset, as he discussed with The Pavlovic Today. Although I applaud the journalist who interviewed Lutnick, I remain skeptical of these comments, which seem rather noncommittal.

It’s noted that Trump’s interest is there but is it sufficient? The best approach for observers is to see what the administration communicates at Friday’s crypto summit and go from there.

Chief bitcoin bull Michael Saylor confirmed he was invited to the event. When CNBC asked him about assets not named bitcoin being included in a US crypto reserve, his thoughts will be of interest.