President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on March 7 to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. This is a big deal for Bitcoin in the United States and globally. The reserve will be funded with bitcoin seized in government criminal cases and will not be sold so it’s a long-term national treasury.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is being compared to Fort Knox, the secure U.S. gold reserve. White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks said, “The United States will not sell the bitcoins deposited in the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value.”
This means bitcoin is being recognized as a real financial asset. Previously, the government was selling seized bitcoin. Now they will hold onto it as a national resource.
Premature sale of U.S.-held bitcoin has caused the country to lose over $17 billion in unrealized gains.
For now, the reserve will only include bitcoin seized through criminal or civil asset forfeiture cases. The White House said no taxpayer money will be used to buy more bitcoin.
However the Treasury and Commerce departments have been told to figure out how to add more bitcoin to the reserve without increasing costs for Americans.
Estimates say the U.S. government has around 200,000 bitcoin which is worth around $18 billion at today’s prices.
In addition to the bitcoin reserve, Trump’s Executive Order also created a U.S. “Digital Asset Stockpile”.
This will hold altcoins like Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA). But unlike the bitcoin reserve, these can be sold at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary.
Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence says the U.S. government doesn’t own XRP, SOL, or ADA. It remains to be seen if and how these will be added to the stockpile in the future.
When the news first broke, bitcoin’s price dropped 5% and fell below $85,000 for a brief period. Some investors were disappointed the government didn’t announce they would buy more bitcoin. But the price bounced back to around $89,200.
Industry leaders were split. Bitcoin investor Tyler Winklevoss liked the move but isn’t a fan of adding other digital assets to the stockpile. He posted on X, “Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar, and that digital asset is Bitcoin.”
Others weren’t as pleased. Charles Edwards of Capriole Investments called it a symbolic move saying, “This is just a fancy title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed with the government. This is a pig in lipstick.”
The announcement of the bitcoin reserve came just before the first-ever White House Crypto Summit on March 7.
The event was attended by big names in the industry including the Winklevoss twins, Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan. But not featured were Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.
Trump’s Bitcoin support is getting both praise and criticism.
Some say it will help the US stay in the global digital economy game. Others worry about the influence of wealthy digital asset investors and potential conflicts of interest, especially since Trump has had business ties to the “crypto industry” in the past.
The executive order also demands a full audit of the government’s digital asset holdings. This will determine exactly how much bitcoin and other digital assets the US has.
Trump’s Bitcoin support will be a big policy point. This is a huge shift from past administrations which were very cautious about digital assets.
