Brief Take
- President signed an executive order instructing the Treasury to establish control of the US crypto reserve.
- The US shall have a separate reserve for BTC and another for other digital assets.
- Agencies in possession of the government crypto (seized) will transfer them to the reserve within the next 30 days.
US President Donald Trump finally issued an executive order on Thursday to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The EO comes just a day before the crypto summit with top industry executives at the White House.
Here’s the text of the Executive Order:
— David Sacks (@davidsacks47) March 7, 2025
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE AND UNITED STATES DIGITAL ASSET STOCKPILE
March 6, 2025https://t.co/sQXmaW0X11
Here is a breakdown of Trump’s order for the US crypto reserve.
US Treasury holds control of the crypto reserve
Trump tasked the Secretary of the Treasury with creating an office to manage custodial accounts for the “Government Digital Asset,” which is made of Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will contain only BTC, while the Digital Asset Stockpile will contain digital assets, other than BTC – i.e., altcoins, others.
Within the next 30 days of the order, Trump said any agency in possession of government BTC, usually obtained via forfeiture, shall submit a full accounting to transfer their holdings to Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Similarly, agencies in possession of government Stockpile Assets will transfer to the United States Digital Asset Stockpile.
Will the US buy BTC, ETH, SOL, ADA, and XRP?
The US government will not be purchasing BTC or any other crypto assets from the national purse. This is the part where Crypto Twitter felt was rather disappointing.
Per the order, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce can only acquire BTC and no other crypto. More importantly, they can only acquire additional BTC through budget-neutral strategies that do not impose incremental costs on United States taxpayers.
The instruction means the US government will not be spending money to purchase BTC, but is allowed to acquire it through other means.
For altcoins, Trump ordered that the government should not acquire additional assets except through “criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings or in satisfaction of any civil money penalty imposed by any agency without further executive or legislative action.”
Can the US gov’t sell their Bitcoin and other assets?
The US Treasury is not freely allowed to sell BTC and other cryptos in the nation’s reserve, but there are some caveats.
Trump precisely noted that “Government BTC deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve shall not be sold and shall be maintained as reserve assets of the United States utilized to meet governmental objectives in accordance with applicable law.”
Elsewhere, in the order, the President head of each agency shall not sell or otherwise dispose of any Government Digital Assets (which comprises BTC and other digital assets), except in connection with the Secretary of the Treasury’s exercise of his lawful authority, or pursuant to an order from a court of competent jurisdiction.
Trump explicitly said that the Government Digital Assets can be sold if the heads of relevant agencies determine that the asset should:
- (i) be returned to identifiable and verifiable victims of crime;
- (ii) be used for law enforcement operations;
- (iii) be equitably shared with State and local law enforcement partners; or
- (iv) be released to satisfy requirements under 31 U.S.C. 9705, 28 U.S.C. 524(c), 18 U.S.C. 981, or 21 U.S.C. 881.