Solana co-founder questions Trump’s crypto reserve despite SOL inclusion

Solana co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said he would prefer no US crypto reserve, citing the risks to decentralization if a government was in charge. 

On March 6, Yakovenko posted on X, sharing the order of his preferences regarding a US reserve of cryptocurrencies. The Solana co-founder said his No. 1 preference would be having no reserve because putting the government in charge may cause decentralization “to fail.”

Yakovenko said his second preference was for states to run their own crypto reserves. The Solana CEO said this could act as a hedge against the Federal Reserve making a mistake. 

On March 2, US President Donald Trump announced a list of digital assets to be included in a crypto strategic reserve. Trump said the Working Group on Digital Assets had been instructed to include XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). 

Solana co-founder calls for measurable requirements for crypto reserves

The Solana co-founder also included a third preference, with objectively measurable requirements being imposed on tokens to be included in a national reserve. 

He said the requirements could even be constructed in a way where only Bitcoin currently met the standards. However, they should be “rationally justified,” adding that if there’s a target, “the Solana ecosystem will get it done.”

The comments were made in response to reports citing anonymous sources saying that Ripple had pitched Solana to be included in Trump’s crypto reserve so that XRP’s inclusion would “seem more legitimate.”

When asked on social media if Solana representatives had pitched SOL to be included in the national crypto reserve, Yakovenko denied involvement. “What’s a Solana representative? At this point, it’s honestly like saying a Bitcoin representative. No one asked me, and I didn’t pitch it,” he wrote. 

Related: Trump’s crypto reserve likely to be mostly Bitcoin, bigger than expected: Bitwise

Similarly, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson denied any knowledge of Cardano’s token being included in the reserve before Trump’s announcement. Hoskinson said in a March 5 video that nobody talked to them about ADA being included. Hoskinson also said no Cardano representatives had received an invitation to the upcoming White House crypto roundtable. 

While Hoskinson claims to have not received an invite, several crypto executives, including Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse, Strategy’s Michael Saylor, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov and many others, were confirmed to be attending the summit. 

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