jakiro
Author: Zeke, researcher at YBB Capital
introduction
For President Donald Trump, the world is an episode of “Apprentice”.In less than a month after he took office, many people, from internal government employees to foreign leaders, have received a metaphorical notice from him that “You were fired”.
As the show continues to air over the next four years, how can cryptocurrencies, as key contestants, successfully advance to the next round?Maybe we must first understand the boss himself.
1. The market likes surprises, but I control the rhythm
In Trump’s autobiography The Art of Deal, two pillars define his philosophy of negotiation: controlling the rhythm and creating surprises.These intertwined strategies not only made his early business empire, but also shaped his political skills in his later years.
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“Control the rhythm”:In trading, you have to set the rhythm.If you let the other party decide the time, you have lost half of it.”
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“Making surprises”:“The surprise element is crucial. When they think you have surrendered, make new demands to them – it will leave them out of balance.”
Looking back at Trump’s early business negotiations, his grasp of the pace of transactions was obvious from the beginning.
In 1976, during the Grand Hyatt New York projectTrump used a high-risk deadline to put pressure on the city.He threatened to abandon the deal three days before the city’s budget deadline when officials asked him to bear the cost of renovation of the nearby subway station.The city council, facing funding shortages, was forced to approve a tax cut that would increase government subsidies from $40 million to $120 million.
During the construction of Trump Tower in 1983, he will use his delay tactics to the extreme.When the project was 90% completed, he suddenly sued the contractor for delaying construction and taking advantage of their desperate need for the final payment.This legal means allowed him to cut construction costs by 23%.
Acquisition of Atlantic City Casino in 1985, is the pinnacle of Trump’s “ambush strategy”.After eight months of negotiations, when the seller Pratt Hotel Group finalized the deal and prepared to hold a signing ceremony, Trump made an unexpected new requirement—to require the seller to bear $300 million in debt 48 hours before the deal is completed.This seemingly reckless move is actually a carefully planned gambling.He knew the seller had spent $2 million in attorney fees, which would trigger a financial crisis that would force the company to bankruptcy if the deal failed.Faced with increasing pressure, the seller finally made concessions, allowing Trump to acquire the casino at a price of 40% below the market value.This “sunken cost blackmail” strategy has become a landmark move by Trump, and the description in “The Art of Deal” is like this: “When they think they have won, it is the best time to launch a fatal blow.”
To this day, Trump still uses these strategies on the geopolitical stage.On February 28, he held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky on global television at the White House.Trump has orchestrated these actions as always.
1. On the eve of the meeting, he reached a shocking agreement with Russia and established four key consensuses.The most important of these is that the two sides promise to cooperate in future geopolitical and economic cooperation, provided that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is resolved.
2. He initially asked Ukraine to repay US$500 billion, but adjusted this requirement during the meeting, insisting on injecting 50% of Ukraine’s future income from strategic resources such as rare earth metals, lithium, graphite into the US-led “reconstruction fund”.
3. The meeting was broadcast live to audiences around the world, and the audience was shocked.Trump’s unprecedented sudden request for Zelensky to leave the White House led to a breakdown of negotiations.
Meanwhile, Trump’s radical trade measures have also been met with equal retaliation from foreign counterparts, a turbulent weekend for the president.
From these cases, we can distil Trump’s negotiation principles into four key principles:
1. Set an extreme initial requirement to force the opponent to accept less than ideal conditions.
2. Use all available leverage to maximize returns.
3. Maintain unpredictability, making it difficult for the opponent to predict his actions.
4. Use the power of the media to expand the influence of events and change the public’s perception.
However, as recent countermeasures taken by several countries have shown,The most effective way to offset Trump’s strategy is probably surprisingly simple: Reject contact.Reject negotiations.
2. Strategic reserves
On Sunday after the bilateral meeting between the United States and Ukraine, Trump issued two consecutive statements on his social media platform Truth Social: XRP, SOL, and ADA will be included in the “crypto strategic reserve”, and ETH and BTC will still be held as core.
After the news was released, the market showed a bullish momentum.According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin surged 9% to $93,969, Ethereum rose 13% to $2,516, Solana surged 24% to $174.64, Cardano surged 70% to $1.11, and XRP surged 34% to $2.93.
However, the response of the crypto community is significantly different from the usual enthusiasm.The key point of the argument comes from a suspicious user on Hyperliquid who spent millions of dollars and 50x leverage long BTC and ETH at a seemingly perfect opportunity.Social media analysts believe the person deliberately traded on DEX to avoid revealing their KYC information to the centralized exchange.
Conspiracy theories spread quickly – some speculated that the announcement Sunday was chosen for strategic reasons, with the aim of allowing institutional investors to sell their cryptocurrency holdings on Monday, thereby effectively leveraging the cryptocurrency market as liquidity exports.Others argue that Trump’s astonishing move to announce the establishment of cryptocurrency reserves is consistent with his usual strategy—but the real motivation is much more complex.
According to Trump’s philosophy of “the art of transaction”, some possible strategic goals include:
1. Have lofty ambitions and never give up until you achieve your goal.—While multiple cryptocurrencies are listed as strategic reserves, the actual goal may be just to ensure the strategic position of BTC.This will force other countries to buy bitcoin, ensuring that the United States maintains its dominance over the asset.
2. Use influence to control market trends—As president, Trump now has unparalleled power to plan narratives about strategic reserves, similar to how Bitcoin ETF hype drives market cycles.
3. Expand the influence of its family in the cryptocurrency field——The Trump family has moved from real estate to cryptocurrency, seeking power and influence in every possible area.
4. Uncover a deeper financial network——The selection of these specific cryptocurrencies indicates that there is an undisclosed interest behind the tokens “approved by the White House”.
5. Force the U.S. government to unlock seizure cryptocurrencies—The United States holds billions of dollars in confiscated crypto assets, which Trump may be trying to transfer into official reserves or issue related bonds with them.
6. Redefine strategic reserves in the digital economy——Traditional strategic reserves (such as oil, gold and cash) have clear purposes.Even if BTC can be compared to gold, what are the reasons for including SOL, ADA and XRP?Trump may have planned to drive mass adoption of these chains in key industries, positioning its tokens as the “oil” that drives blockchain infrastructure.
3. Living toward death
Trump’s decision-making style is deeply influenced by his father, Fred Trump, who instills a zero-sum game worldview—a relationship based on winners and losers, dominance and obedience.This shapes Trump’s battle-oriented approach to business and diplomacy, and even his controversial encouragement for the January 6 Capitol riots after the 2020 election defeat.
Cryptocurrency investors often praise Trump as “cryptocurrency president,” but the key question is whether their interests are truly consistent with Trump.Trump’s “America First” and “family First” philosophy will undoubtedly extend to his cryptocurrency policy.While the exact impact on non-U.S. and non-Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency projects remains uncertain,The overall trend is clear: Trump is replicating his trade war strategy to ensure that the U.S. and Trump-affiliated projects dominate the blockchain space.
There are currently three direct trends:
1. US crypto projects will be given priority through ETFs and strategic reserves.
2. American projects may enjoy capital gains tax exemption, while projects that are not compliant or do not enjoy preferential treatment may face targeted taxation.
3. Projects related to Trump may receive special rights, such as regulatory sandboxes, preferential treatment and direct funding.
In addition to these obvious trends, Trump can go a step further and target non-US bitcoin mining pools to ensure that every newly minted bitcoin is as close to “Made in the United States” as possible.
Additionally, regulatory controls can be extended to the protocol layer itself, requiring projects to integrate the U.S. regulatory interface—effectively limiting on-chain growth to an “U.S. approved” ecosystem.
Over the next four years, Trump has multiple leverages to use, and the Americanization of cryptocurrencies has entered an irreversible stage.For those who navigate this new reality, there are only two options:
Either adapt to the new order or refuse to participate in the game.
4. The shadow of DOGE
Trump’s close friend Elon Musk played a key role in the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market, turning Dogecoin — initially created as a joke — into a currency that achieves both the market cap moon landing program and the veritable moon landing mission.
Dogecoin was born on a network meme, originally developed by engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013 to satirize speculation that was rampant in the cryptocurrency market at that time.The token was developed in just three hours and has the characteristics of infinite inflation. It even calls mining “hole digging”, which is directly inconsistent with the scarcity narrative of Bitcoin.
However, Musk gave this old meme a new life.Since 2019, he has publicly accepted the title of “Father of Dogs”, igniting market enthusiasm with slogans such as “to the moon” and “The People’s Currency”.In 2025, he even named SpaceX’s lunar satellite mission “DOGE-1”, making it the first space project funded entirely by Dogecoin.This meme-powered craze drove Dogecoin to rise by more than 7,000% in 2021, with a market capitalization of over $85 billion briefly, surpassing General Motors and other corporate giants – an amazing shift from a joke to a top 10 crypto assets.
The biggest tragedy in the world is to become something you once despised.Cryptocurrencies are now repeating the trajectory of their initial oppressors.Bitcoin, once a weapon against centralized control, has now become a tool for US financial hegemony.
The market follows Trump’s tweets – from BTC to TRUMP coins, Melania coins, and now to these so-called “strategic reserves”.Wherever the baton points, the market follows.Cryptocurrencies have lost their independence.
This cycle is completed when the revolutionaries become those in power.The industry that once challenged authority has now become an extension of authority, embodying what authority wants to destroy.The dragon slayer has become an evil dragon.
5. A double-edged sword
Putting aside personal interests, Trump is undoubtedly a legend in the political and business circles in American history, and BTC will follow him to the moon.
But what innovation can survive under authoritative intervention and over-regulation?
I used to be frustrated with the lack of ambitions for altcoins, but now, I regret their misfortune.The struggle between power and attention is now completely entrenched in the chain.As Vitalik Buterin recently responded to Ethereum OGs on X:
“When I hear crypto Twitter and VC praise ‘99% loss rate PvP, KOL casino’ as the best market match for crypto products — and then refer to the desire for better things as ‘eliticism’ — should I be happy?”
This trend will only intensify, PvP is just a microcosm.The so-called “best project” may only exist in Trump’s tweets in the next four years.
Trump’s perception of cryptocurrency has always been a double-edged sword.
Cryptocurrencies will split into “traditional” and “Americanized” schools.The past public chain wars will expand to a larger battlefield.This war will be cruel under Trump’s aggressive strategy and overwhelming influence.
But if cryptocurrencies want to be truly reborn, they must go through this liquidation.
