It's hard to imagine a larger catalyst for cryptocurrencies than the one on March 6, when the White House issued an executive order that the U.S. would be forming both a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a national Digital Asset Stockpile.

And yet in the wake of that ultra-bullish announcement, the prices of major cryptos including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) , Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) , Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) , XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) , and Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) are all down, and substantially in most cases.

So what's going on here? Let's dig into the details of the new reserve announcement and add some context.

This catalyst didn't excite anyone

Under the plan for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile, the government will not be buying any of the cryptocurrencies mentioned above, at least not in a way that involves spending from the nation's budget.

Aside from the executive order mandating the creation of the stockpile and the reserve, there are many steps remaining before these repositories will actually exist. Those steps may or may not be taken, depending on various political, financial, and bureaucratic contingencies.

As far as Bitcoin goes, the order -- as well as the administration's stated vision for the reserve -- makes it clear that the government should now retain any of the cryptocurrency that comes into its possession via asset seizure or forfeitures, rather than sell it. Some investors had been hoping for overt purchasing activity on a regular basis, funded with discretionary and budgetary capital, much like the other strategic resource reserves maintained by the country. Therefore, there is a bit of a disconnect between expectations and outcomes, which explains the coin's decline.

For Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and XRP, as well as other assets intended for the stockpile, the picture is slightly different, but the gist is the same.

Based on the president's initial remarks on social media in advance of issuing the executive order, those cryptos would be included in the newly formed stockpile. Yet according to the executive order, as well as the White House crypto summit on March 7, it's very unlikely that the government will devote a meaningful amount of money to actually stockpiling them beyond retaining what it obtains via asset forfeitures. It will be subject to the same budget-neutral conditions as with Bitcoin. That's hardly what investors wanted.

Either way, the negative price impact on these altcoins is sharper than with Bitcoin because they had more to gain from potentially being purchased by the government since they're smaller assets. Without a mandate for federal crypto purchases to fill the repository, investors were left to reprice their assumptions about the value of those cryptos.