President Donald Trump splashed the crypto waters earlier this week when he signed an executive order focused on digital assets to be potentially included in the US reserves.

Although it’s not officially approved yet, the decision has sparked substantial debates within the community on which cryptocurrencies should be included or whether it should just be bitcoin.

The Debate

Ever since Trump changed his tune on the crypto industry last year and made dozens of optimistic promises during his election campaign, the talk of the town has been whether he will stay true to his word and establish a US BTC reserve.

The first portion of that plan would be for the US government to stop selling the seized BTC from illegal operations. However, Trump went further on Thursday by signing an executive order titled ‘Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technologies’ to explore the inclusion of various cryptocurrencies into the US reserve.

This sent shockwaves throughout the community, especially those favoring many US-based projects and their underlying assets, such as SOL, XRP, and ADA. Many believe that companies like Ripple are actually working against BTC in this manner by ‘throwing around millions at politicians, desperately trying to derail it.’

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, refuted the accusations, saying their efforts ‘are actually increasing the likelihood of a crypto strategic reserve (which includes bitcoin) happening.’

Unless you are choosing to ignore the core tenants of the POTUS campaign (which aggressively supports American companies and technologies), our efforts are actually INCREASING the likelihood of a crypto strategic reserve (which includes bitcoin) happening.

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 23, 2025

No XRP, Please

Messari’s founder, Ryan Selkis, joined the anti-XRP front, indicating that the Ripple incentive is ‘toxic.’ He went further, described the project’s native token as a ‘piece of s**t,’ and said it would be better to have no crypto strategic reserve than to put XRP in it. Selkis concluded that BTC is the only exception and that it makes sense to be the sole crypto rep in that reserve.

America-First is not “American-Shitcoin First”

We’d be better off having no strategic reserve than one with a “endorsed” pieces of shit like XRP.

Still, I think Bitcoin is an exception.

1. Build different (with energy)
2. Lindy, mcap dominance, no insiders
3. Global traction https://t.co/eCNhKjpgSL

— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) (@twobitidiot) January 23, 2025

In contrast, Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson, who has been collaborating with the Ripple team for a while now, said there’s no need to ‘base XRP’ and claimed that the strategic reserve will start as bitcoin-only.

Bitcoin’s price has been on a spectacular run for the past few months, going from under $70,000 to almost $110,000 to break its previous all-time high and mark a new one, well within six-digit territory.

The micro-scale has also turned positive as the asset recovered its 30-day percentage gain or loss to above 6% at the end of the week. The world’s most prominent cryptocurrency is trading at nearly double its price six months ago.

Furthermore, it can be had or sold for more than 100% of its exchange rate 12 months ago.

BTC Experts Remain Overwhelmingly Bullish

But, most Bitcoin experts surveying the market conditions for blockchain assets today are very bullish on the currency’s prospects for another extended leg up the chart over the coming months in 2025.

Some of the main reasons for the strong forward sentiment:

• First, there’s Donald Trump’s reelection, a new crypto-friendly SEC chair, and plans in Congress to appropriate US tax dollars to buy and hold Bitcoin in a strategic national reserve.
• Then there’s Bitcoin’s enormous demand, miner network participation, powerful use cases, limited currency supply, and the bullish phase of its four-year supply cycle.
• Finally, there’s the rapidly expanding US dollar supply under a low interest rate regime, four years of record-setting US budget deficits ahead, and economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Here are three recent Bitcoin price predictions from cryptocurrency experts:

2025 Expert Bitcoin Price Predictions

Aquinas Wealth Advisors: $130,000

According to Christopher McMahon, CEO of Aquinas Wealth Advisors and author of “Faithful Finances,” Bitcoin’s price will top $130,000 this year. McMahon’s is the lowest of the three forward targets for BTC in 2025. He argues that institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies will make the numbers go up.

Motley Fool: $200,000

According to a cryptocurrency analyst at the popular investment website Motley Fool, $200,000 BTC is “not only possible but also… fairly probable.” He’s tracking Bitcoin’s steep historical trend line, new investors, especially globally, as well as governments and companies joining the blockchain race.

BlackRock: $700,000

Meanwhile, of all current expert Bitcoin price predictions, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s stands out most. The Wall Street executive warns Bitcoin’s price could rocket to $700,000 this year. The rocket fuel? Fink argues his math works out if a number of large hedge funds begin to allocate 2% to 5% of their holdings to BTC.

Bitcoin’s price movements over the weekend have been quite underwhelming, but the asset has remained stable at around $105,000.

The altcoins are with minor gains on a daily scale but the weekend charts show a different picture for many of them.

BTC Holds Steady at $105K

The largest cryptocurrency went through a spectacular ride at the beginning of the business week. It began with a nosedive on Monday morning from $106,000 to under $100,000 before it exploded to a new all-time high of over $109,000. More volatility ensued before, during, and after Donald Trump’s inauguration speech as he failed to mention crypto.

Following a price slump to $101,000, the bulls stepped up and didn’t allow a price slump into five-digit territory. In fact, BTC started to recover some ground and spiked to $107,000 a few days later. It failed there and was pushed south by three grand on Saturday morning but has recovered from that decline and now sits about a grand higher with little to no movement over the past 12 hours.

Its market capitalization has climbed to $2.080 trillion on CoinGecko, while its dominance over the alts stands tall at 55.4%.

AVAX on the Rise

The largest altcoins have recovered some of the losses charted yesterday. Ethereum has bounced above $3,300 after a 1.3% daily increase, while XRP is above $3.1 following a similar increase. BNB, DOGE, and ADA stand in the same bracket.

Solana and Chainlink have gained around 3% each and now trade at $255 and $25, respectively. Avalanche has emerged as the top performer from the larger-cap alts, surging by 6% to $37.5.

The biggest gainers from the top 100 alts are XCN (91%), OM (30%), TAO (13%), and TRUMP (10%).

The total crypto market cap has recovered over $60 billion overnight and is up to $3.750 trillion on CG.