White House signals U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve announcement is close
CoinMarketCap reports that a senior White House official overseeing digital assets said an official announcement on a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is nearing release, with the toughest legal issues largely resolved and federal custody and reporting plans moving forward.
Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Council on Digital Assets, said in a recent interview that the government has cleared a key legal hurdle needed to create the reserve and that an asset-protection framework is mostly in place.
The effort follows an executive order President Trump signed on March 6, 2025, directing the creation of a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Witt said an interagency team has since been assessing federal agencies' legal authorities and finalizing legal memoranda, custody procedures, and disclosure protocols.
A central obstacle is that existing federal infrastructure was built for traditional reserve assets such as gold, not for managing private keys. As a result, the government is rebuilding custody and reporting systems designed specifically for Bitcoin.
The U.S. government holds about 328,372 BTC, roughly 1.6% of global supply, largely from law-enforcement seizures and criminal forfeitures. These include assets tied to cases such as Silk Road and the recovery of Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2022. The executive order also bars the Treasury from selling this tranche, effectively classifying it as a reserve rather than readily disposable holdings.
Witt added that a prior theft from the U.S. Marshals Service's custodial account underscores federal security concerns. The report alleges a government contractor stole more than $46 million in crypto assets from the account by the end of 2025, with another $24 million in stolen assets traced to October 2024.
With executive orders potentially vulnerable after a presidential transition, lawmakers are moving to lock the framework into law. Representative Nick Begich recently renamed the BITCOIN Act as the American Reserves Modernization Act, which would authorize the Treasury to buy up to 200,000 bitcoins per year for five consecutive years and impose a minimum holding period of 20 years. Senator Cynthia Lummis is also pressing for a vote before the summer recess.
If enacted, the legislation could set the stage for the Treasury's first open-market Bitcoin purchase as early as the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the report.
