Blog

After hinting at it to start the week, President Trump just signed an executive order on Thursday creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, marking a major shift in U.S. digital asset policy.

But many crypto enthusiasts are a littel disappointed (and price action is reflecting that currently), as instead of acquiring crypto assets, 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…

Bitcoin is down around $3,000 on the news, holding above the levels seen before President Trump's posts on Sunday…

Steven Lubka, head of private clients and family offices at bitcoin-focused financial service firm Swan Bitcoin, said while having a stockpile could be a good first step, he eventually hopes to see a crypto reserve where the U.S. government would buy and accumulate bitcoin.

A crypto stockpile is likely already priced in, Lubka said.

On the bright side, this order removes the constant overhang FUD that the US government will dump its holdings on the market at an inconvenient time, though "it would be good to have a congressional mandate over time to make the crypto stockpile or reserve protected from the next administration," Seth Ginns, head of liquid investments at crypto investment firm CoinFund told MarketWatch in a phone interview.

Whether the U.S. government holds or trades crypto, "that doesn't really matter, because it's more like a feather in the cap of legitimacy and use-case for this asset," Sue Ennis, head of investor relations at crypto-mining company Hut 8.