The President signed an executive order last Thursday, officially establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the United States.
Ignore the noise from last week, folks. Donald Trump has pulled through.
The President has signed an executive order (Thursday), officially establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the United States.
That’s “Bitcoin” reserve – and only bitcoin. No inclusion of the cauldron coins that Trump teased from his Truth Social account last week. Instead, those will be relegated to the “Digital Asset Stockpile” – a separate sub-class of government-held crypto of no significance. Let’s unpack.
Here’s how it works: the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will be funded with Bitcoin already in the U.S. government’s possession—estimated at around 200,000 BTC – a stash accumulated from criminal and civil seizures over the years.
Trump’s order explicitly prohibits the sale of any Bitcoin in the reserve and mandates a full audit of these holdings valued at roughly $17 billion at current prices (hovering around US$85,000 per BTC as of this writing). This reserve is formally being touted as a “digital Fort Knox” for “digital gold” by the White House.
But here’s where it gets interesting…
The E.O. also authorizes both the Commerce and Treasury secretaries to explore “budget-neutral” strategies for acquiring *more* bitcoin, so long as those strategies don’t cost the taxpayer a dime. Though the government claims they have no specific plans yet, most can sense where this is heading: the government will likely sell some of its gold for BTC, just as Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming has proposed in her BITCOIN Act.
The “Digital Asset Stockpile,” by contrast, is way less ambitious. While it will also be established with funds seized by the government, the E.O. explicitly states that they will “not acquire additional Stockpile Assets” by other means.
In fact, the Treasury secretary has even been authorized to create strategies managing the assets, which could include “potential sales from the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.” For example, the state could choose to sell their ETH, XRP, and SOL, and use it to buy more BTC.
In other words: literally nothing has changed with how the government handles scam coins. They were thrown a cheap bone – a fancy new name for the government to placate the lobbyists in Trump’s ear.
The Executive Order as we now understand it is a milestone achievement: The government is HODLing Bitcoin, they plan to stack more, and they’ve created a clear, statutory delineation between bitcoin and everything else. Bitcoin maximalists have won.
“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, it’s the only one that doesn’t have an issuer… in crypto we call it the immaculate conception. It’s almost mystical in a way,” said Sacks during an interview on the All-In podcast this weekend. “It’s the most widely accepted as a store of value throughout the world… so we do believe it should be treated special.”
The implications of the White House’s words are profound. There is no more debate as to whether Bitcoin is a legitimate asset. It’s not even a “risk-on” or “speculative” asset. The world’s largest asset managers, and the world’s largest government, now back BTC as digital gold. Together, they will inspire their rivals to view it the same way, inciting a global race to accumulate BTC as a strategic asset.
With Gensler gone, Ross Ulbricht free, and the strategic Bitcoin reserve now a reality, Trump has fulfilled all of his major promises to the Bitcoin community… within two months as U.S. President.
Still, there’s one more step remaining: passing the Lummis bill through Congress. This will ensure that the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve cannot be overturned by E.O. by the next President, committing the nation to a 20-year long-term HODL strategy.
On that note, we’ll leave this here (posted today):
El Salvador Doubles Down: Bukele Defies the IMF
Meanwhile, halfway across the hemisphere, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is proving he’s not one to back down on Bitcoin.
On March 5, 2025, Bukele declared his government would continue its Bitcoin-buying spree, defying expectations tied to a freshly inked $1.4 billion IMF deal. As reported by Bloomberg, this bold stance comes despite an IMF agreement that many assumed would halt El Salvador’s BTC accumulation.
Bukele’s journey with Bitcoin began in 2021 when he made it legal tender—a move that drew global headlines and no small amount of skepticism. Since then, his administration has been methodically acquiring BTC, reportedly spending $290 million to amass 6,101 coins, now worth around $540 million.
That’s a tidy profit, considering Bitcoin’s price has soared since those early purchases.
Yet the IMF – forever anti-Bitcoiners – stipulated in its February deal that El Salvador “committed not to accumulate Bitcoin” as part of the $1.4 billion extended fund facility. Yet Bukele took to X with a defiant “No, it’s not stopping,” creating skepticism as to whether Bukele is serious or bluffing for his Bitcoiner following.
“If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most ‘Bitcoiners’ abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future” he wrote.
The IMF later backtracked, claiming the recent purchases align with the agreement’s terms—a statement that has left analysts scratching their heads. Stacy Herbert of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office assured followers on X that “nothing has changed” from El Salvador’s December deal with the IMF, which included keeping bitcoin as legal tender and continuing to buy it.
El Salvador’s stash might be small compared to the U.S.’s, but its symbolic weight is massive—a tiny nation daring to challenge the old guard with a new monetary playbook.
As of now, both the most powerful nation and one of the least powerful are onboard the Bitcoin ship. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else is looking for a seat.
Stay humble,
Andrew
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