Ripple Pushed Solana Into Trump’s Crypto Reserve: A Shady Power Play?

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump unveiled a Strategic Crypto Reserve featuring multiple digital assets: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA). Many observers were initially surprised to see altcoins—particularly XRP, SOL, and ADA—in a federal-level announcement once presumed to revolve solely around Bitcoin. Now, new revelations from Unchained suggest that Ripple may have brokered the inclusion of Solana through backdoor lobbying to bolster XRP’s credibility in the eyes of policymakers and the crypto community.

Has Ripple Pushed SOL And ADA Into The Reserve?

A report by Unchained suggests that Ripple Labs executives championed Solana’s addition in an effort to avoid suspicion that President Trump’s reserve would only benefit XRP. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty pitched the White House on the importance of having multiple US-based tokens in any federally endorsed crypto basket.

Several commentators say Ripple knew it would look questionable to promote a reserve that included XRP but not other high-profile altcoins. One analyst pointed to the fact that Solana and Cardano are widely perceived as more neutral or “community-driven” than XRP, which has been the subject of ongoing speculation about the scale and legitimacy of its usage.

Notably, many observers found it odd that Trump did not mention Bitcoin and Ether in his first public post on Truth Social, especially given their top market status. By contrast, XRP, SOL, and ADA were explicitly named first. This sequence seemed at odds with market norms and has led to more questions about what the Trump administration’s real intentions might be.

When pressed for clarity on whether Ripple had specifically recommended Solana be added to make XRP’s place in the reserve more palatable, a Ripple press representative referred reporters to a Sunday tweet by CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

“I’ve said this before – the crypto industry will achieve our goals (and beyond), IF WE WORK TOGETHER. Appreciate the crypto President @realDonaldTrump’s vision of a govt digital asset reserve representative of the industry. Maximalism is the enemy of the industry’s progress. Glad to see POTUS recognizing we live in a multichain world and that we’re finally moving past Bill Hinman and the Biden administration’s SEC’s very broken thinking. I will certainly continue to champion this while in Washington at the end of this week.”

Notably, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is bluntly skeptical of the concept of a government-controlled crypto reserve. Via X, he posted:

“My reserve order of preference

No reserve, because if you want decentralization to fail you’d put the government in charge of it. Or states run their own reserve as a hedge against the fed making a mistake Or if there has to be a reserve, it’s based on objectively measurable requirements. … If there is a target to beat, the solana ecosystem will get it done.”

Related Reading: Ripple Negotiating Hard? Lawyer Thinks It’s Causing SEC’s Case Resolution

When pressed by Unchained’s Laura Shin, Yakovenko later added that he had no knowledge of Solana being pitched by anyone, especially from Ripple, saying, “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.”

Meanwhile, Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, echoed a similar sentiment in a March 5 video: “We knew nothing about ADA being selected for the reserve. It was news to me.” This leaves room for speculation that Ripple also pushed ADA into the reserve with the same reason, only to lend credibility to their own interest, the inclusion of XRP.

Hoskinson described learning of ADA’s inclusion only after receiving hundreds of congratulatory messages, explaining that any potential attempt to engage with the White House before the announcement never materialized: “We never even knew about it, and nobody even talked to us about it,” he added.

As speculation mounts, industry insiders now eagerly await the first Crypto Summit at the White House on Friday. This event is expected to yield more details on the composition and procurement strategy of the crypto reserve. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that the focus could be primarily on Bitcoin:

“A Bitcoin strategic reserve is something the President’s interested in. He spoke about it all during the campaign trail, and I think you’re going to see it executed on Friday. So Bitcoin is one thing, and then the other currencies, the other crypto tokens, I think, will be treated differently—positively, but differently.”

At press time, XRP traded at $2.58