Trump Signs Executive Order To Create ‘strategic Reserve’ Of Crypto

President Donald Trump late Thursday signed an executive order authorizing the federal government to stockpile cryptocurrency assets that it seizes through law enforcement proceedings, a move aimed at boosting the digital assets industry.

Under the executive order, the federal government will hold onto the bitcoin assets that federal law enforcement entities seize, which will go into a “strategic bitcoin reserve,” according a post on X by David Sacks, the White House’s crypto and artificial intelligence czar. It also authorizes the Treasury and Commerce departments “to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers,” wrote Sacks, who added that the reserve “will not cost taxpayers a dime.”

“The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox” for bitcoin, Sacks wrote. “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.”

The order also created a separate “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile” that will contain other cryptocurrencies the government seizes. Earlier this week, Trump floated the prospect of including tokens like Ripple’s XRP, Solana and Cardano as well as bitcoin and ether in what he dubbed a “Crypto Strategic Reserve” — sending the tokens’ prices soaring on investor hope that the U.S. government would be entering the market as a major buyer of digital assets.  

But crypto prices immediately plunged after Sacks’ post, before rebounding shortly thereafter. By 8:45 p.m. ET, bitcoin was trading at around $88,000, which was down 2.8 percent over the prior 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. 

The creation of the reserve and stockpile is part of a broad shift in Washington toward policies aimed at benefiting the crypto industry. It comes ahead of a White House crypto summit on Friday that is set to feature an array of prominent figures in the digital assets world.

For backers, the bitcoin reserve is a chance for the U.S. to get in on the original cryptocurrency’s growth, which many in the market believe is ripe to climb higher as Trump pursues a crypto-friendly regulatory agenda.

“We are becoming the bitcoin and digital asset capital of the world,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) posted Thursday on X. “America is so ₿ack.” 

Yet there are still plenty of questions about how the reserve and stockpile would work. Some critics, for instance, have been skeptical that the federal government would ever be able to cash out of its bitcoin without startling other investors and sparking a sell-off. 

Trump first promised to create a crypto reserve during a speech in July at a major bitcoin conference. He then sparked controversy over the weekend when he announced on social media that the broader array of assets, which some in the industry believed was not merited — in part because of their volatility. 

“I want to thank the President for his leadership and vision in supporting this cutting-edge technology and for his rapid execution in supporting the digital asset industry,” Sacks wrote. “His administration is truly moving at ‘tech speed.’”