President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating a strategic bitcoin reserve, marking a major shift in U.S. digital asset policy.
White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, wrote in a post on X that the reserve will be funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases, ensuring that taxpayers bear no financial burden.
According to estimates, the U.S. government controls approximately 200,000 bitcoin, though no full audit has ever been conducted. Trump’s order mandates a comprehensive accounting of federal digital asset holdings and prohibits the sale of bitcoin from the reserve, positioning it as a permanent store of value.
Additionally, the order establishes a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, managed by the Treasury Department, to hold other confiscated cryptocurrencies.
Many crypto investors who have supported Trump raised concerns over the weekend after the president said in a post on Truth Social that in addition to bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token, and Cardano’s ADA coin would be part of a strategic crypto reserve.
“I have nothing against XRP, SOL, or ADA but I do not think they are suitable for a Strategic Reserve,” bitcoin billionaire Tyler Winklevoss wrote. “Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar and that digital asset is bitcoin.”
SOL, ether and bitcoin all fell around 5% late Thursday, while ADA plunged nearly 12%.
Ahead of the announcement, Castle Island Venture’s Nic Carter told CNBC that the U.S. committing to a bitcoin-only reserve would “ratify bitcoin as a global asset of consequence, somewhere in the realm of gold.”
“The U.S. is clearly the most important nation in the world, and so their stamp of approval really does a lot for bitcoin,” Carter said, noting that including any digital currencies other that bitcoin would have made it look like another speculative fund.
Ryan Gilbert, a fintech investor, said the move will send a strong message to institutions that bitcoin is here to stay. He said the decision would further distinguish bitcoin from other cryptocurrencies.
“There’s been many folks out there for the past decade and a half that have said bitcoin is the way to go, ignore the other tokens,” Gilbert said. “I do think it will help bitcoin as a token, as an asset, separate itself from all the others as far as the debate is concerned.”
But Gilbert said the U.S. has to be cautious in how it manages the reserve.
“What we don’t want to see is the U.S. actively trading bitcoin,” he said. “A reserve should be a long-term store of value, not something that introduces market-moving speculation.”
Sacks praised the decision, calling it a milestone in making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.” He previously noted that the U.S. lost over $17 billion in potential value by selling seized bitcoin prematurely.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will oversee further policy development, with a focus on budget-neutral acquisition strategies for bitcoin, according to Sacks.
WATCH: Solana co-founder opposes Trump’s crypto reserve proposal
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