The Trump administration is establishing a reserve using its existing Bitcoin holdings
Just hours before the White House Crypto Summit, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a separate stockpile of other digital assets. The news plunged Bitcoin to $84,000 Thursday evening, however, as the federal government isn’t purchasing new bitcoins under the order; it’s merely establishing a reserve using its existing holdings. On Friday morning, Bitcoin was up 1%, hovering around $90,000.
Trump’s crypto advisor, David Sacks, stated on X $TWTR that the Bitcoin reserve will be funded with Bitcoin already held by the federal government, seized through criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.
The Treasury Department will establish an office to manage the reserve. “Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency,” the order said. “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.”
Currently, the United States is the largest government holder of Bitcoin, with a staggering 213,297 Bitcoin in its possession, according to data from CoinGecko. At current market prices, this amounts to approximately $19.3 billion.
Most of these Bitcoin holdings have been acquired through cryptocurrency seizures, often stemming from law enforcement operations targeting illicit activities such as black-market trading and transactions on darknet markets.
Crypto leaders such as Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong, Strategy (MSTR) executive chairman Michael Saylor, and Robinhood (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev will attend the White House Crypto Summit later today. They welcomed Trump’s move to create a strategic crypto reserve, calling it a historic moment for the crypto world.
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