MARA Holdings, a crypto mining company, saw its stock plunge 5% on Monday in the intraday session. The decline came after an initial surge in crypto stocks, fueled by former President Donald Trump's announcement about creating a U.S. strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies.
Early on Monday, crypto stocks like BTC Digital, Bakkt, Hut 8, and MARA Holdings rallied sharply after Trump revealed plans to stockpile several digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano. However, the rally quickly fizzled out as concerns emerged over the inclusion of smaller, riskier tokens in the proposed reserve.
While Bitcoin bulls had hoped for a Bitcoin-focused reserve to solidify its status as "digital gold," the inclusion of tokens like XRP, Solana, and Cardano drew criticism from industry participants. Critics argued that these smaller tokens lack the same level of decentralization, scarcity, and store-of-value characteristics as Bitcoin, diluting the value of the strategic reserve.