Trump Admin Will Explore Ways to Acquire Bitcoin for Strategic Reserve

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said on March 7 that his administration is exploring ways to invest in bitcoin for the national strategic reserve, which will be established through his new executive order.

He made the announcement at the first White House crypto summit, which was attended by leading figures from the digital asset industry.

“The federal government is already among the largest holders of bitcoin,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion at the summit.

He referred to the $17 billion worth of 200,000 bitcoin tokens that the U.S. government currently holds after seizing them through criminal forfeitures.

“These existing holdings will form the foundation of the new reserve,” Trump stated.

“The Treasury and Commerce Department will also explore new pathways to accumulate additional bitcoin holdings for the reserve, provided it’s done at no cost to the taxpayers.”

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Trump criticized the Biden administration for selling significant holdings of cryptocurrency, stating, “From this day on, America will follow the rule that every bitcoin [holder] knows very well: ‘Never sell your bitcoin.’”

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump fully embraced the cryptocurrency industry and promised he would make the United States “the crypto capital of the world.” This marked a dramatic shift from his stance during his first term.

Upon returning to the White House, he swiftly signed an executive order aimed at bolstering U.S. leadership in digital assets and financial technology.

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

On March 6, he also signed an executive order to establish a “strategic bitcoin reserve,” a national stockpile akin to the U.S. gold reserves, that could be tapped for future use.

“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency” the 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.”

According to David Sacks, Trump’s special adviser for AI and crypto, the federal government obtained nearly 400,000 bitcoins over the last decade, half of which were sold at a low price for almost $370 million.

If they had been kept, they would be worth $17 billion today, he told reporters at the White House on March 7.

He said the remaining number of bitcoins is roughly 200,000, pending audit.

“We think that the best way to preserve that value is to store these bitcoins for the long term,” he said.

“Bitcoin has often been called digital gold, and what we’re doing with the reserve is effectively creating a digital Fort Knox to safeguard that digital gold.”

According to the order, within 30 days of its issuance, each agency is required to review its authority to transfer any government-held bitcoin to this strategic reserve.

Some industry leaders have suggested that the United States should aggressively purchase bitcoin for the reserve. Some have even speculated that the government could sell some of its gold at Fort Knox to buy bitcoin.

When asked about whether the government would consider selling gold to buy bitcoin, Sacks said: “No, there’s been no conversation about that. I see people speculating about that online.”

“It’ll be up to the secretary of the Treasury, and then also the secretary of Commerce, to determine if there are budget-neutral ways of adding to our bitcoin reserve,“ he said. ”But we have not had conversations about what those might be.”

‘Some People Really Suffered’

Many prominent figures from the cryptocurrency industry attended the event at the White House, including MicroStrategy executive Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Robinhood head Vladimir Tenev.

Trump gave the guests a warm welcome, telling them, “I know that many of you have been fighting for years for this, and it’s an honor to be with you at the White House.”

He said that under the previous administration, regulators targeted the industry, pressuring banks to close the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs and blocking money transfers to and from exchanges.

The Biden administration increased its crackdown on the crypto industry to combat money laundering and other crimes. Some of these efforts sparked controversy.

“All of that will soon be over, and we are ending Operation Choke Point 2.0,” Trump said, referring to regulators’ efforts to de-bank the sector.

“Some people really suffered. It was ridiculous what they were doing.”

“I write today to request information about how you, as President Trump’s ‘Crypto Czar,’ have addressed your own conflicts of interest, and how you will prevent the President and other private individuals from directly profiting off of the Trump Administration’s efforts to selectively pump certain crypto assets, drop crypto asset-related enforcement actions, and deregulate the crypto asset industry,” the letter said.