President Trump has Created a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve”

President Trump has signed an Executive Order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The Bitcoin funding will come exclusively from Bitcoins seized by the United States in criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. There will be no cost to American taxpayers.

Estimates are that the U.S. government owns about 200,000 bitcoin, but an audit is necessary. The U.S. government also holds other cryptocurrencies, and the President’s Order directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings.

At the close on March 7th, Bitcoin was trading at $88,078.95 per unit. This means the Strategic Reserve holds $17,615,790,000 in Bitcoin at today’s rate.

“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 Executive Order states.

“The U.S. now has the world’s largest Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” according to Multimillionaire business executive and long-time Bitcoin believer Michael Saylor, who added on X that, “There is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”

Under the Executive Order, Bitcoin that is deposited into the Reserve will not be sold. But there are exceptions to this policy: it can be returned to identifiable and verifiable victims of crime; it can be used for law enforcement operations; it can be equitably shared with State and local law enforcement partners; or it can be released to satisfy certain specified statutory obligations. But the overall intent is that the Bitcoin in the Reserve will remain there, being kept as a store of value to the nation.

David Sacks, the White House A.I. & Crypto Czar, wrote on X that, “The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called “digital gold.” Premature sales of bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value. Now the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings.”

Additional Bitcoin may be acquired, both by later lawful seizures and forfeitures and by “budget-neutral strategies” for acquiring additional bitcoin, but those strategies must be without cost to American taxpayers.

The Executive Order also established a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile,” consisting of other cryptocurrencies and digital assets also forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings. The stockpile may grow through future forfeitures, but no other additional assets may be added to the Stockpile through other means.

Sacks says, “This Executive Order underscores President Trump’s commitment to making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

Bloomberg, which is unable to ever write anything positive about Trump, headlined its news story on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, “Bitcoin Drops After Trump Executive Order Disappoints Market,” though its own story admitted that, “crypto executives issued effusive social media posts praising the move.”

On the campaign trial, back in July 2024, Trump spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the annual Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, and he promised to make America the world leader in cryptocurrency technology. In his speech he likened the crypto-verse to “the steel industry of 100 years ago,” and promised to ensure that America became “the crypto capital of the planet and bitcoin superpower of the world.” According to an NBC News article reporting the event, Trump was met with “”Rapturous applause” from the assembled Bitcoin faithful.