The US is now one of the few nations in the world to build a national stockpile of blockchain assets after President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a strategic reserve for Bitcoin.
According to a post on X by White House AI and cryptocurrency tsar David Sacks, the reserve will include cryptocurrency that has been forfeited to the federal government as part of criminal or civil processes.
According to Sacks, the US will retain Bitcoin as an asset and will not sell any that have been placed in the reserve.
Trump claims he intends to make the US “the Crypto Capital of the World” after saying that Bitcoin “seems like a scam” only four years ago.
When the president hosts the first crypto symposium at the White House on Friday, more information is anticipated.
It’s unclear if the proposed reserve would need a congressional act or encounter legal obstacles.
Comparing the stockpile to a military installation in Kentucky that houses a sizable amount of US gold assets, Sacks claimed it would act as “a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency.”
Additionally, Trump’s order establishes a digital assets stockpile for forfeited cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.
According to Sacks, the federal government’s cryptocurrency assets, which are estimated to be worth 200,000 Bitcoin alone, are subject to a thorough accounting. At today’s pricing, that is equivalent to $17.5 billion (£13.6 billion).
Sacks said that the additional stockpile “will not cost taxpayers a dime,” but it was unclear how this would help Americans.
His suggestion that the US government would not purchase Bitcoin caused the price of the biggest cryptocurrency in the world to drop by nearly 5%.
To diversify their government holdings and protect themselves from financial risk, some nations keep strategic reserves of their own assets.
The United States likewise maintains a petroleum reserve. There is a maple syrup reserve in Canada.
Trump named five cryptocurrencies earlier this week that he stated he wanted added to the strategic reserve.
Following that revelation, the market values of the five coins he named—Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano—sprang sharply.
During his presidential campaign, Trump actively courted the cryptocurrency sector. Citing worries about fraud, former US President Joe Biden spearheaded a crackdown on cryptocurrency.