On March 6, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Establishing the United States Bitcoin Strategic Reserve and Cryptoasset Fund.” In it, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce to implement neutral strategies for acquiring more BTC. However, one of the most notable points of the document was the instruction to federal agencies to disclose their Bitcoin holdings within 30 days of the order's signing.
“Within 30 days of the date of this order, each agency shall review whether it has the authority to transfer the Government-owned BTC it holds to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and shall submit a report containing the results of that review to the Secretary of the Treasury,” the report stated. The deadline was set for the 5th of this month, but the required information was ultimately not disclosed. According to journalist Eleanor Terrett, a White House official clarified that the actual deadline was April 7, but the outcome was the same: so far, the data required by the Trump administration has not been released.
Although there are no official figures, it is estimated that the United States holds around 200,000 bitcoins. In fact, data from Bitcoin Treasuries indicates that the country holds 207,189 BTC. Arkham Intelligence, for its part, puts the figure at 198,012 BTC.
It's worth remembering, the U.S. Marshals Service is unable to declare how many crypto assets it holds. Given this lack of clarity, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis announced the start of an investigation.
It's also important to note that it's still unclear whether funds seized following the Bitfinex hack, perpetrated by Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, will be part of this reserve. In January of this year, a court ruled that the Department of Justice must return the more than 93,000 recovered bitcoins to the victims. At the time of writing, that figure equates to more than $7.36 billion, based on CoinMarketCap prices.
The investigation, spearheaded by Senator Cynthia Lummis, could lead Congress to take a more active role, demanding greater transparency through public hearings or through possible laws requiring agencies to comply with the president's executive order. Furthermore, the lack of official data could increase pressure on the Treasury Department and the Secretary of Commerce to accelerate the implementation of “neutral strategies” aimed at acquiring more BTC.
This shift in approach contrasts with the strategy adopted by the US government over the past decade. As David Sacks, the “AI and cryptocurrency czar” appointed by Donald Trump, recently recalled, during that period, authorities sold approximately 195,000 bitcoins for a mere $366 million. Had they been held, they would be worth more than $17 billion today.
With the executive order signed on March 6, the government seeks to correct that trend by establishing that BTC held by the state cannot be sold and must be kept as part of its strategic reserve.
While official audits of bitcoins held by institutions are awaited, the trade war fueled by Donald Trump has taken a turn that many consider unexpected and uncertainty about the future direction of US trade policy remains.
