US Government Treats Bitcoin as Strategic Reserve Asset Bitcoin Surges
1min read David Sacks, the White House crypto czar, has recently elaborated on the US government's decision to treat Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. He described Bitcoin as a "scarce" digital resource that could benefit the country over the long term. Sacks mentioned that the US government currently holds approximately 200,000 Bitcoin (BTC), although the exact number is unknown due to the lack of a comprehensive audit. He emphasized the need for a full government-wide audit to determine the exact holdings and to safeguard these digital assets for long-term value.
President Donald Trump's executive order, issued on March 6, directed federal agencies to conduct a full audit of their cryptocurrency holdings. This order aims to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a digital asset stockpile. Sacks clarified that the Bitcoin reserve is intended for long-term preservation, while the digital asset stockpile will be managed by the Secretary of the Treasury, who has the discretion to rebalance the portfolio or sell assets as needed. The digital asset portfolio strategy could include the sale or staking of digital assets based on the treasury secretary’s discretion.
Sacks did not specify any particular altcoins and cautioned against overinterpreting President Trump's March 2 announcement, which mentioned Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), and Cardano (ADA) as part of the stockpile. He noted that the president simply mentioned the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap, and the final decision on which assets to include will depend on the government-wide audit.
Industry experts have responded to Trump's executive order and Sacks' commentary, noting that while the short-term impact on Bitcoin and crypto prices may be limited, the long-term implications could be significant. Joe Kelly, CEO of Bitcoin financial services company Unchained, emphasized that clear, well-structured regulation is crucial for Bitcoin's role in the global financial system. He believes that with the right framework, Bitcoin's long-term impact will extend far beyond price action, reshaping capital markets, financial sovereignty, and the concept of reserves.
Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at Nansen, highlighted a sentence from the executive order fact sheet as being "mildly bullish for BTC" in the short term. She suggested that the order could imply potential asset swapping, such as from euro to Japanese yen to Bitcoin. Beyond the executive order 