Author: YBB Capital Researcher Zeke
Preface
For President Trump, the world is a huge reality show of “The Apprentice”. In less than a month in office, many people, from internal agency staff to foreign leaders, have received dismissal letters with “You’re fired” from Trump.
How can Crypto succeed as a key guest in the remaining four years of the show? I think we may need to start by understanding this boss first.
First, the market likes surprises, but the pace must be controlled by me
In Trump’s autobiography “The Art of the Deal,” ‘controlling the rhythm’ and ‘creating surprises’ constitute the core pillars of his negotiation philosophy. The intertwined use of these two strategies has not only built his early business empire but also set the tone for his later political maneuvering.
● “Take Control of the Pace”: The original sentence in the book: “In a deal, you have to set the pace. If you let the other side dictate the timing, you’ve already lost half the battle.”
● “Manufacturing Accidents”: The original sentence in the book: “Accidents are a decisive factor. When the opponent thinks you are compromising, suddenly make a new request - this will disrupt their position.” (“The element of surprise is crucial. When they think you’ve given in, hit them with a new demand—it throws them off balance.”)
Looking back at classic negotiation cases from Trump’s early days in business, starting with the 1976 New York Hyatt Hotel project, Trump demonstrated absolute control over the negotiation rhythm. When the city government asked him to bear the cost of subway station reconstruction, he used the threat of withdrawing from the negotiations to create a sense of urgency—announcing a sudden halt to work three days before the city budget deadline, forcing the New York City Council to urgently pass a tax relief plan, ultimately increasing government subsidies from $40 million to $120 million. In the 1983 Trump Tower project, he took the delaying tactic to the extreme: suddenly suing the contractor for construction delays when the project was 90% complete, using the other party’s eagerness to settle the final payment to successfully reduce the project payment by 23%.
The 1985 Atlantic City casino acquisition was the pinnacle of his ‘blitzkrieg strategy’. After 8 months of negotiations, when the seller, Pratt Hotel Group, was ready for the signing ceremony, Trump made a new demand of assuming $300 million in debt in the final 48 hours. This seemingly crazy move was actually a precise calculation: he knew that the other party had already spent $2 million in legal fees, and the bankruptcy of the project would result in collective debt collection by the banks. In the end, the seller was forced to accept the terms, and Trump completed the acquisition at a cost 40% lower than the market price. This ‘sunk cost blackmail’ later became his signature negotiating style, as described in ‘The Art of the Deal’: ‘When the opponent thinks victory is certain, that is the best time to deliver a fatal blow.’ This highly aggressive negotiation strategy is not only his advocated ‘law of the deal’, but also his controversial ‘destructive survival technique’.
Let’s rewind the timeline to a recent date, February 28th, Zelensky and Trump held a global live bilateral meeting at the White House. In this meeting, Trump continued with his usual strategy, first reaching a four-point consensus with Russia on the eve of the meeting. The most crucial point was the agreement to lay the foundation for future cooperation in common geopolitical interests, economic, and investment opportunities, which will emerge as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine ends. The second was to present a sky-high bill, demanding a repayment of $500 billion, which was later modified during the meeting to Ukraine injecting 50% of the future profits of strategic resources such as rare earths, lithium, and graphite into a U.S.-led “reconstruction fund.” The live broadcast of the entire meeting left the global audience stunned, and ultimately, Trump demanded Zelensky to leave directly, leading to the breakdown of the negotiations. The tariff stick waved externally also faced retaliatory measures. President Trump evidently did not have a happy weekend.
From the above cases, we can get a more specific summary of Trump’s trading rules: 1. Set goals far higher than expected, forcing opponents to accept inferior conditions; 2. Use all possible ways to pressure opponents to maximize benefits; 3. Be unpredictable, making opponents unable to figure out; 4. Use the power of the media to infinitely magnify the event.
From the counterattacks of multiple countries, it seems that the way to counteract this strategy is also simple: refuse to trade, refuse to negotiate.
Two, Strategic Reserve
After the US-Ukraine bilateral talks ended last Sunday, Trump again posted two tweets on his social media platform Truth Social, announcing that XRP, SOL, and ADA will be included in the ‘crypto strategic reserve,’ while ETH and BTC remain the core. Following the announcement, the market saw a wave of bullish returns. According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin surged 9% to $93,969, Ethereum rose 13% to $2,516, Solana soared 24% to $174.64, Cardano skyrocketed 70% to $1.11, and XRP increased by 34% to $2.93. However, the reaction within the industry to these two tweets is quite different from previous supportive attitudes. The key trigger was a suspected ‘rat warehouse’ user appearing on Hyperliquid at an extremely coincidental time, using millions of dollars to leverage 50 times long on BTC & ETH. According to social media analysis, the reason this user chose to place orders on a DEX was to avoid centralized exchanges obtaining their KYC information. There are many conspiracy theories related to this incident, such as the Sunday announcement being a strategy to pump prices before institutional trading days, and using various channels to withdraw from the crypto market as an ATM, etc.
Trump’s sudden announcement of a basket of cryptocurrency reserves still fits his consistent style, but the real purpose is difficult to fathom. Given his current appetite, these speculations may not be big enough. Combining the ‘trading rules’ mentioned earlier, I personally speculate on some possible purposes:
Although many cryptocurrencies reserves have been mentioned, in fact, it is just to make the United States accept the second-best situation, that is, to ensure that the strategic reserve of BTC becomes a reality, so as to attract more mainstream countries to buy BTC, and the United States still holds the dominant position;
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After being elected president, Trump not only has greater influence, but also can continuously build up the ‘strategic reserves’ expectations with his power, just like past ETF expectations, thus continuously controlling market trends;
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Trump needs to continuously strive for influence and power for this family that has shifted from real estate to encryption. He approaches encryption from every possible angle;
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There is obviously a more complex network of interests behind the “strict selection of the White House”;
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Currently, there is a clear lack of funding sources for buying cryptographic strategic reserves. Trump is using his usual public opinion support to force confiscated cryptocurrencies to be converted into strategic reserves, or to request the issuance of related bonds;
The basic concept of strategic reserves refers to the materials, energy, financial resources, etc. that a country strategically stores during peacetime. The biggest question about cryptocurrencies becoming strategic reserves is the lack of intrinsic use, even if BTC can be likened to gold. Therefore, the strategic reserves of other altcoin public chain tokens still lack support. Trump may already have plans to promote the widespread adoption of several public chains in various fields, and public chain tokens, as the ‘oil’ for accessing the chain, can naturally be seen as ‘material reserves’.
Three, Destructive Survival
Trump’s decision-making style and personality traits were heavily influenced by his father, Fred Trump. His father’s high-pressure education defined interpersonal relationships as a “zero-sum game,” and this upbringing shaped Trump’s competitive mentality of “hostileizing” his opponents. Whether it is the confrontation between business and diplomacy, or the incident of inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol after his defeat in the 2020 election, it clearly underscores his survival rules centered on attack, destruction and repression.
As retail investors in the cryptocurrency circle often cheer for the ‘crypto president’ due to the relationship of interests, it is important to be cautious as we may not necessarily be on the same front as the ‘crypto president’. The concept of ‘America first’ and ‘family first’ will still prevail in his crypto world. Although it is not yet clear how Trump will counter non-American, non-family projects, it is obvious that he is ensuring ‘America first’ and ‘family first’ in the world of blockchain in a manner similar to a trade war.
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The US project prioritizes ETFs and strategic reserves;
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The US project may enjoy zero capital gains tax in the future, so conversely, projects that he does not like may be taxed.
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The “privileges” of family projects, such as regulatory sandboxes and targeted transfusions.
The above three points are obvious trends at the moment, and in my opinion, Trump may still have a way to suppress the output of non-US mining pools, so as to ensure that every remaining BTC is printed with “Made in USA” as much as possible. Only projects that meet US standards will have on-chain prosperity when they are connected to the regulatory interface in the protocol layer. And there is still a lot to come in the next four years, and the Americanization of crypto has inevitably entered the stage of breaking the shell. In this conspiracy, we either choose an alliance or choose to “refuse to trade”.
Fourth, the shadow of DOGE
Donald Trump’s friend Elon Musk once pushed Dogecoin, originally created to mock Bitcoin, to a dual “moon” in terms of market value and physical significance during the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market. This joke coin originating from internet memes was initially developed by engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013 to mock the frenzy of speculation in the cryptocurrency market at the time. Its code was completed in just 3 hours, adopting an infinite issuance mechanism and even jokingly referring to mining as “digging holes,” completely overturning Bitcoin’s narrative of scarcity.
However, Musk has given this ancient meme a new lease on life through social media. Since 2019, he has claimed the title of “Father of Dogecoin,” igniting market enthusiasm with slogans such as “moon landing” and “people’s currency.” In 2025, SpaceX’s lunar satellite launch mission was named DOGE-1, becoming the first space project to be fully paid for with Dogecoin. This frenzy propelled Dogecoin to surge over 7000% in 2021, with a market value once surpassing $85 billion, surpassing traditional giants such as General Motors, completing its transformation from a satirical tool to a top ten global crypto asset by market value.
The greatest tragedy in the world is that you become the person you hate the most. The crypto world is reenacting the fate trajectory of its adversary. Once the ‘anti-centralized profit blade,’ Bitcoin has now become the new vehicle for American hegemony—funds flow follows the baton swing of Trump’s tweets, from BTC to Trump, Melania, and these so-called strategic reserves, where the baton points is the future of crypto, and the vitality of crypto is lost. When the resistor becomes part of the establishment, crypto ultimately fails to escape the narrative loop of ‘the boy who slays the dragon becomes the dragon.’
Five, Double-edged Sword
Setting aside the perspective of self-interest, Trump is indeed a legend in the history of American politics and business. I also believe that BTC will accompany him to the moon. But what innovation can there be in encryption under strong intervention and high supervision? In the past, I was angry about the cottage industry, but now I also lament its misfortune. The game of attention and power is rampant on the chain, just like Vitalik’s reply to the Ethereum OGs on X.
When I hear people from the crypto Twitter and venture capital community proclaiming “PvP with a user loss rate of over 99%, KOL gambler casino is the most suitable product for the crypto field and market,” and saying “yearning for something better is elitism from a position of superiority,” will I feel pleased?
And in the future, this situation may escalate even further. PvP is just a microcosm. In the next four years, the so-called best projects may only appear in President Trump’s tweets. Trump’s advocacy of encryption has always been a double-edged sword. Encryption may ultimately split into various circles such as traditional and American styles. The past public chain wars will also be conducted on a larger scale. Under Trump’s strong strategy and huge influence, this war may be very fierce, but the rebirth of encryption will surely survive this calamity.
