XRP and Bitcoin Price Gains Stall. What Trump Actually Means for Crypto. — Barrons.com

By Elsa OhlenBitcoin, XRP and other digital assets rose early Friday, but failed to reach new highs despite fresh crypto friendly moves by President Trump.The world's largest digital coin, Bitcoin, is up 3.6% over the past 24 hours to $105,413, according to CoinDesk data. It hit a record high above $109,000 on Monday as Trump took to the White House for the second time.The popular altcoin XRP, used to facilitate transactions on Ripple's payment platform, is up 3.4% to $3.21, also short of recent records above $3.40.While losses since the beginning of this week may be due to investors taking profit, or moving assets to other cryptos (such as the newly launched Trump meme coin $TRUMP), it may also be due to disappointment around the apparent lack of progress on a national reserve of Bitcoin.Trump has pledged to end the Securities and Exchange Commission's crackdown on the crypto industry, and appointed crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to lead the regulatory body. The President also signed an executive order Thursday to create a crypto working group led by White House crypto and artificial intelligence czar David Sacks.He hasn't yet created the national strategic Bitcoin reserve he has promised, and that might be what's holding cryptos back from reaching new highs.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.