Trump Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Using Seized Crypto Assets

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The White House announced the decision through crypto czar David Sacks on social media platform X. The reserve will hold bitcoin confiscated through criminal and civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

The U.S. government currently controls approximately 200,000 bitcoins, worth around $17.5 billion at current market rates. Trump’s order prohibits selling these holdings, positioning them as permanent stores of value similar to gold reserves.

“The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve,” Sacks wrote. “It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called ‘digital gold’.”

The initiative comes at no cost to taxpayers, as it exclusively uses assets already seized by the government. Sacks previously highlighted that premature sales of confiscated bitcoin cost taxpayers over $17 billion in missed appreciation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will supervise the development of policies for the reserve. The executive order also mandates a comprehensive accounting of all federal digital asset holdings.

Trump Establishes U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile

Trump simultaneously established a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile for other seized cryptocurrencies. The government will not purchase additional cryptocurrencies for this stockpile but will manage those obtained through legal proceedings.

The announcement arrives one day before the White House hosts its first-ever crypto summit with industry executives. Trump previously named five cryptocurrencies he planned to include in a national reserve: bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, solana, and cardano.

This policy marks a dramatic shift for Trump, who once described bitcoin as a potential “scam.” The cryptocurrency community has found unprecedented engagement under Trump’s administration, contrasting with stricter approaches during the Biden years.

The executive order positions the United States to compete with other nations establishing national cryptocurrency reserves. El Salvador became the first country to form a Bitcoin reserve in 2021.