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So the US has officially moved to create that long-awaited strategic bitcoin reserve? And a separate stockpile for other crypto assets?
Yes, sort of.
Reactions are mixed as people read the fine print. First, some details you might already know:
Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) and a Digital Asset Stockpile (DAS). The latter sports the same acronym as Blockworks’ upcoming event!
The SBR is to be capitalized with BTC forfeited to the Treasury department via criminal/civil proceedings. The US won’t sell bitcoin in this reserve.
There’s not yet a plan to buy more BTC, leaving some disappointed. However, the EO notes that the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce — currently Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick — can “develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin.” Essentially ones that won’t burden taxpayers.
As for the DAS, that would include digital assets beyond bitcoin (none specifically named in the EO) also collected via forfeiture. The government would not buy more assets for this stockpile.
Many thought a bitcoin reserve announcement could be a catalyst to send BTC price to new heights. We did not see that immediately.
Compass Point analysts called the reserve and stockpile creation “a nonevent.” Based on price action around the reveal, they added, the market seems to agree with this view.
Bitcoin was trading around $88,200 at 2:10 pm ET — down nearly 2% from 24 hours prior.
“Since these accounts are created by an EO, they can be undone by a future EO,” Compass Point’s Ed Groshans, Joe Flynn and Ed Engel wrote in a Friday note.
The elements making a reserve “durable” include legislation authorizing specific actions and appropriating funds for those actions, they argue. So they’re labeling the EO issuance “a dud” — at least for now.
“We will reassess the relevance of the SBR when Treasury and Commerce publish the strategies to acquire BTC.”
Despite this reasonable take, many still consider this a monumental step in legitimizing BTC and the broader asset class. Bitwise’s Ryan Rasmussen encouraged people to “zoom out,” detailing the potential ripple effect.
Falcon X research head David Lawant pointed to a few other positives. One being that Trump’s order clearly put BTC in a separate category while still acknowledging the value of other digital assets (remember Trump’s mention of ETH, SOL, XRP and ADA on Sunday?).
And the EO seems to shield the reserve from any backlash on taxpayer money usage, he added — noting the US could diversify its gold reserves into BTC and/or utilize the Exchange Stabilization Fund.
It’s unclear how much more we’ll learn during/after today’s White House crypto summit (happening now).