Bitcoin and crypto prices have swung wildly over the last week as U.S. president Donald Trump begins his second term—teasing huge crypto plans.
The bitcoin price has reclaimed $100,000 per bitcoin, climbing as traders predict a so-called “God candle” could be about to hit the market.
Now, after Trump’s crypto czar declared a new age has “just begun,” a presidential pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has sent expectations soaring that Trump will follow through on his campaign promise to create a U.S. bitcoin reserve.
“If Ross Ulbricht got the pardon, we are definitely getting the strategic bitcoin reserve,” crypto YouTuber and influencer Anthony Pompliano posted to X. “Trump will create history with the stroke of his pen.”
In December, Trump confirmed he plans to establish a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve. “We’re gonna do something great with crypto because we don’t want China, or anybody else … but others are embracing it, and we want to be ahead,” Trump told CNBC.
“Yes, I think so,” Trump said in response to a question about whether the U.S. will create a bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its oil reserve.
In July, then Republican candidate Donald Trump promised to create a “strategic national bitcoin reserve” and predicted bitcoin could eclipse gold’s $16 trillion market capitalization during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road who went by The Princess Bride movie-inspired moniker Dread Pirate Roberts and helped popularize the use of bitcoin for online transactions, has been given a full pardon by Trump, fulfilling a campaign promise.
Following the announcement, Tesla billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk said he’d asked if Roger Ver, an influential bitcoin and crypto developer, may receive a similar pardon over tax evasion charges.
The odds of Trump creating a U.S. bitcoin stockpile on the Polymarket prediction platform shot up following Ulbricht’s pardon, who was serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole following his 2015 conviction.
“Odds for the [strategic bitcoin reserve] just skyrocketed, it’s going to happen,” David Bailey, the chief executive of Bitcoin Magazine publisher Bitcoin Inc who organized the bitcoin conference Trump spoke at last year, posted to X.
Trump’s launch of a controversial and widely-mocked memecoin over the weekend had somewhat dampened the spirits of the bitcoin and crypto community ahead of his inauguration on Monday, however, Ulbricht’s pardon has reenergized bullish bitcoin speculators who believe Trump will create a crypto “golden age.”
“Welcome home, Ross. Bitcoiners stand with you,” Jack Mallers, the chief executive of bitcoin wallet company Strike, posted to X.
The article is featured on Forbes.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
