President Donald Trump’s move to establish what he calls a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” within the federal government was greeted with celebration in the crypto sector at the beginning of his administration. The industry welcomed the arrival of Bitcoin as further certainty. $BTC$67,917.55 Although it is recognized as a mature asset, there is still no provision after one year.
Although the Trump administration has done the initial work of accounting for the government’s cryptocurrency holdings, it is far from forming a U.S. Bitcoin reserve, as a result of one concept in the March 6, 2025 order: “Any legislation is necessary to operationalize all aspects of this order.” President Trump’s Treasury Department lacks the authority needed to create a special account. The White House acknowledged that it would require action from Congress, and President Trump’s crypto advisor Patrick Witt said the situation presents “new legal questions” to answer.
Lawmakers such as Sen. Cynthia Lummis have filed preliminary bills, and people familiar with legislative strategy say the best chance for passage now may be to incorporate the bill into the National Defense Authorization Act at the end of the year. But President Trump’s White House will likely need to re-adopt the issue as a priority cause to make that happen.
Speculation has waxed and waned about the planning and financing of this reserve and its cousin, another digital asset stockpile also ordered by President Trump to collect all other types of cryptocurrencies. Last month, CNBC Markets Talking Head Jim Cramer spewed rumors that President Trump’s associates were ready to start filling the reserve fund. $BTC Even though I didn’t have a place to put it or money to buy it, it ended up costing me $60,000.
The president’s crypto allies continue to dispute questions about how much Bitcoin the federal government actually holds, although some estimates put it at more than 300,000, totaling more than $20 billion.
The crypto sector’s main disappointment with President Trump’s Bitcoin order was that it was not accompanied by any new government purchases of major crypto assets. Instead, it encouraged creative policies that allowed governments to increase their stockpiles without using taxes.
Witt, an adviser to President Trump, has been reluctant to share his main ideas for acquiring more Bitcoin for the fund. The fund is held for long-term appreciation, not as a strategic reserve that technically suggests its contents will be released to alleviate an emergency.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the ongoing suspension, further underscoring that executive orders, a cornerstone of the Trump administration, lack legal authority and often serve little more than directives from senior presidential officials.
If Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress propose incorporating the reserve bill into a defense bill by the end of the year, the legislative process would typically conclude in December. Must-pass funding bills are often used as what D.C. insiders like to call the “Christmas tree.” This bill hangs up a lot of ornaments from unrelated bills because it has to pass. If that’s the plan, it would happen during the “lame duck” period of this Congress, when some members are voted out of office or elected to retire (like Lummis) but have not yet reached their departure date.
Lummis’ own Bitcoin reserve bill calls for a spending program in which the U.S. would hold 1 million tokens, about 5% of the total eventual supply. The Wyoming Republican, who is the founding chairman of the Senate Banking Committee’s First Digital Assets Subcommittee, has so far only been able to get legislation passed out of committee, but the committee’s main priority is passing another crypto issue: the Digital Asset Market Transparency Act.
Read more: Why doesn’t the US have Bitcoin reserves yet?
