Trump unveils plan to create ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ with forfeited crypto
US president Donald Trump has set out plans to create a ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ and ‘Digital Asset Stockpile.’
Trump ended the seventh week of his second term as US president by signing an executive order and hosting a Digital Assets Summit (also referred to as ‘Crypto Summit’) at the White House – his latest high-profile moves to champion an industry typically treated by major economies’ political leaders with caution.
The executive order, published on 6 March, sets out the rationale and practical next steps. The summit, which followed the next day, saw Trump describing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve as a “virtual Fort Knox for digital gold to be housed within the US Treasury”. Fort Knox is the US Bullion Depository, which houses a large portion of the nation’s gold reserves.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will be capitalised with Treasury Department-owned bitcoin that has been forfeited through criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, according to the order. Other government agencies have been asked to evaluate their legal authority to transfer across any bitcoin they may have. The Digital Asset Stockpile, meanwhile, is intended to be ‘a secure account for orderly and strategic management’ of the US’s ‘other digital asset holdings’: non-bitcoin crypto.
These are just the latest initiatives implemented by Trump in line with a pre-election promise to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”. With the first week of his return to the White House, he signed an executive order – eagerly awaited across the cryptoassets sector – to ‘establish regulatory clarity for digital financial technology’; and kicked off the work of a new presidential working group on digital asset markets, chaired by David Sacks as White House artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto ‘czar’.
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‘Strategic advantage’ sought
“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency,” a section of the newly issued executive order states. “The Bitcoin protocol permanently caps the total supply of bitcoin (BTC) at 21 million coins and has never been hacked. As a result of its scarcity and security, Bitcoin is often referred to as ‘digital gold’. Because there is a fixed supply of BTC, there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.”
“The United States government currently holds a significant amount of BTC, but has not implemented a policy to maximise BTC’s strategic position as a unique store of value in the global financial system,” the order continues. “Just as it is in our country’s interest to thoughtfully manage national ownership and control of any other resource, our nation must harness, not limit, the power of digital assets for our prosperity.”
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would become an office established by the Treasury secretary.
The immediate focus is on bitcoin already owned by the US government. But the order goes on to instruct the Treasury secretary and commerce secretary to “develop strategies for acquiring additional Government BTC provided that such strategies are budget neutral and do not impose incremental costs on United States taxpayers.”
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is asked to deliver, within 60 days, an “evaluation of the legal and investment considerations for establishing and managing” both the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile.
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Digital assets audit required
As well as assessing the legal and investment considerations, Bessent is also asked to investigate “the accounts in which the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile should be located” and the “need for any legislation to operationalise any aspect of this order or the proper management and administration of such accounts”.
In a separate next step, each government agency head has been given 30 days to provide Bessent and the president’s digital asset markets working group with “a full accounting of all government digital assets in such agency’s possession”.
A fact sheet published by the White House alongside the executive order states that the US currently holds a “significant amount” of bitcoin but has “not maximised its strategic position as a unique store of value in the global financial system”. Furthermore, it says that “premature sales of bitcoin have already cost US taxpayers over US$17bn”.
“The executive order begins to resolve the current disjointed handling of cryptocurrencies seized through forfeiture by, and scattered across, various Federal agencies,” the White House states. “Currently, no clear policy exists for managing these assets, leading to a lack of accountability and inadequate exploration of options to centralise, secure, or maximise their value.”
“Taking affirmative steps to centralise ownership, control, and management of these assets within the federal government will ensure proper oversight, accurate tracking, and a cohesive approach to managing the government’s cryptocurrency holdings,” it continues. “This move harnesses the power of digital assets for national prosperity, rather than letting them languish in limbo.”
This article was intitally published on Global Government Forum’s sister title Global Government Fintech: Trump unveils plan to create ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ with forfeited crypto
About Ian Hall
Ian is editor of Global Government Fintech a sister publication to Global Government Forum. Ian also writes for media including City AM and #DisruptionBanking. He is former UK director for the pan-European media network Euractiv (2011-2018), editor of Public Affairs News (2007-2011) and news editor of PR Week (2000-2007). He was shortlisted for ‘Editor of the Year’ at the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) Awards in 2010. He began his career in Bulgaria at English-language weekly the Sofia Echo. Ian has an MA in Urban and Regional Change in Europe and a BA in Economics, both from Durham University.
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