The White House is preparing an imminent announcement on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Patrick Witt, crypto advisor to the Trump administration, declared Monday at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas that he had reached a "breakthrough" on the executive front.
Witt's Statement in Las Vegas
Patrick Witt spoke clearly from the stage of the Bitcoin 2026 conference on April 27. The administration, he explained, has spent months working through the legal interpretations needed to formalize the management of Bitcoin held by the federal government. This is not a routine update.
"The President signed the executive order on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve last year, and since then we have been working to understand exactly the mechanisms needed and the legal interpretations to do it the right way, to solidify it and protect the digital assets — and specifically the Bitcoin — that we hold on the government's balance sheet," Witt stated. "In the coming weeks we will make a major announcement. I think we have achieved a small breakthrough, and obviously this will need to be followed by legislation."
The executive order in question was signed by Trump on March 6, 2025, formally establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate US Digital Asset Stockpile. That document prohibited the sale of confiscated Bitcoin and directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to develop strategies to acquire additional BTC at no additional cost to taxpayers.
What the Executive Branch Can — and Cannot — Do
The technical point is central: the administration can act on custody, inter-agency coordination and legal interpretation through its executive powers. But a lasting reserve policy would require an act of Congress.
At another panel during the same conference, Representative Nick Begich announced that legislation to codify the reserve into law will be reintroduced in the coming weeks under a new name: the American Reserves Modernization Act, or ARMA. The proposal builds on the Bitcoin Act originally introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis and reintroduced in the 119th Congress, with revisions developed alongside the House Financial Services Committee.
"We want to make sure that Bitcoin is treated as the store of value that it is," Begich stated. The goal of ARMA, according to the representative, is to identify where the BTC held by government agencies is located, place it in secure custody and prevent it from being lent out or subjected to variable reserve policies.
At the time of publication, BTC was trading at $76,941.
The View From Europe
Looking at this from Italy, what stands out is the gap between the pace of American policy and that of Europe. While Washington works to formalize a state Bitcoin reserve — even if not yet binding at the legislative level — Europe remains anchored to MiCA, a regulatory framework that governs operators but does not contemplate any form of strategic crypto holdings by member states. For Italian and European investors, this is a signal that the geopolitical direction of Bitcoin as a reserve asset is being charted across the Atlantic, not in Brussels.
What Happens Next
A formal announcement from the White House on the executive side of the Bitcoin Reserve is expected in the coming weeks. On the legislative front, the ARMA bill will be reintroduced in Congress. Witt emphasized that the executive announcement will still need to be followed by a legislative act to carry permanent weight.
