Crypto Markets Stall as Trump’s Crypto Policy Report Fails to Spark Momentum

Major cryptocurrency markets remained flat on Thursday, July 31, as investor caution lingers, following the Federal Reserve’s decision yesterday to hold rates steady and the publication of the White House digital assets working group’s recommendations for crypto policy.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues trending sideways this week. As of press time, it’s trading just under $118,000, flat both on the daily and weekly charts, after briefly spiking to about $118,644 earlier this week.

The price stagnation may reflect uncertainty following the release of the much-anticipated report from President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which failed to provide any new details on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, leaving investors without clear direction on that front.

Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) is also flat today, trading around $3,800. The largest altcoin has climbed 2% over the past week, despite public companies aggressively ramping up their ETH treasury strategies.

Data from the Strategic ETH Reserve show that public firms are actively competing to accumulate more ETH. Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Tech — which announced its pivot to an ETH treasury company at the beginning of July — has emerged as the entity with the largest ETH holdings, controlling an estimated 625,000 ETH valued at roughly $2.36 billion.

Among major altcoins, XRP is holding up above $3, little changed on the day and down 3% over the past week. Solana (SOL) is also trading flat over the past 24 hours, around $179, down about 5% on the week as it continues to give back some of July’s gains after briefly breaking above $200 last week.

Total crypto market cap stands at $3.95 trillion, down 3.7% today, per CoinGecko data. Over the past 24 hours, more than $385 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated, according to CoinGlass. Ethereum led the way with over $100 million in liquidations, while Bitcoin accounted for $67 million of the total.

No Clarity for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

The Trump administration’s much-anticipated 166-page Digital Assets report ultimately delivered little concrete information on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that hadn’t already been provided in the President’s Executive Order establishing the SBR, alongside a general crypto “stockpile.”

The U.S. government’s Bitcoin Reserve is sourced from assets seized in criminal or civil proceeding forfeitures, with the total estimated at about 200,000 BTC. Part of Trump’s original Executive Order, repeated in yesterday’s report, states that the government plans to not only HODL the Bitcoin in its Reserve, but also is open to “acquiring” more Bitcoin, if it can do so in a “budget natural” way.

Adding to the confusion, Bo Hines, executive director of the White House Crypto Council, also dodged questions about how much Bitcoin the government actually holds during an interview with Crypto in America podcast. Throughout the interview, Hines repeatedly deflected, saying he couldn’t disclose details for reasons he wouldn’t explain, which has only fueled more speculation and left investors uncertain about the true status of the Bitcoin reserve.

Investor Appetite for ETFs Fades, for Now

On Wednesday, July 30, spot Ethereum ETFs recorded their smallest inflow in nearly a month, adding just $5.79 million, the lowest daily figure since July 2, according to SoSoValue data.

Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw relatively modest inflows of just over $47 million, a sharp decline from the billions recorded in mid-July, suggesting a possible cooling of investor enthusiasm after a brief spike earlier this month.

As of July 30, cumulative net inflows into spot Ethereum ETFs stood at approximately $9.62 billion, compared to spot Bitcoin ETFs, which gathered over $55 billion.