Two of the digital assets in U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed crypto reserve, XRP and Cardano (ADA), have performed strongly since his Nov. 5 election, even as others have struggled. XRP and Cardano were recently up 375% and 163% respectively over this period, while Bitcoin has given up a significant portion of its post-election gains and Ethereum and Solana have seen sharp declines. The gains for XRP and ADA have occurred as a shift in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fostered a more favorable regulatory environment for these assets, which rank third and sixth by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins). Over the past two weeks, under Acting SEC Chair Mark T. Uyeda, the agency has dropped multiple enforcement actions against leading crypto-focused firms, including exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. “Both (assets) faced existential-level regulatory threats under the Gensler-led SEC, and those have been removed,” said Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, referring to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The Gensler-led SEC scrutinized the regulatory status of every digital asset in Trump’s proposed reserve, except Bitcoin. The SEC sued Ripple Labs over XRP and labeled Cardano and Solana as unregistered securities in lawsuits against exchanges like Coinbase. Although the SEC has yet to drop its ongoing lawsuit against Ripple, the move is anticipated after the regulator abandoned other high-profile crypto cases. Bitcoin is trading at about $86,700, up about 29% from November levels but well below its all-time high above $108,000 in January. Solana has fallen 9.3% since Nov. 5, and Ethereum has dropped 9.5% since Election Day. Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, noted that Trump naming Cardano in his proposed crypto reserve significantly boosted the coin. “The jump in XRP was more catch-up related to that,” Kendrick added. — news from Decrypt
