The cryptocurrency Shiba Inu (SHIB -6.69%) is falling today, down 6.9% in the last 24 hours as of 12:54 p.m. ET. The leg down comes as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were both down modestly.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent sent Bitcoin lower after he confirmed the federal government would not look to buy Bitcoin to add to its strategic reserve. The rest of the crypto market followed.
On Fox Business this morning, Secretary Bessent said the government has no plans to buy additional Bitcoin for its strategic reserve. Instead, he confirmed it will build the reserve from coins already seized in law enforcement actions and stop selling those holdings. Bessent said:
We've also started to get into the 21st century, a Bitcoin strategic reserve. We're not going to be buying that, but we're going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up. We're going to stop selling that.
The fact that the government will hold those assets it has seized and not sell them is certainly helpful for Bitcoin's price, but some investors were hopeful the Trump administration would go one step further and start purchasing Bitcoin in earnest, creating demand pressure. Traders who had bet on fresh government buying sold the news, sending Bitcoin down and pulling altcoins like Shiba Inu with it.
While meme coins like Shiba Inu can be fun, they shouldn't be taken as investments. For those who are interested in crypto investing, I would stick to the top dogs like Bitcoin and Ethereum or look for projects with real utility.