March 6 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a strategic bitcoin reserve as well as a U.S. digital asset stockpile on Thursday, a day ahead of the White House hosting a crypto summit involving founders, ceo and investors in the cryptocurrency industry.
Trump signed the executive order on Thursday in the Oval Office.
According to a White House fact sheet, the bitcoin strategic reserve will hold only bitcoin and will be “capitalized” with the roughly 200,000 bitcoins in the Treasury’s possession, which were seized over the years as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Other agencies holding bitcoins will also look at potentially transferring them to the reserves.
“This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime,” billionaire David Sacks, the White House’s so-called crypto czar, said on X.
The bitcoins deposited will not be sold and will be maintained as a store of reserve assets, the White House said, with Sacks describing it on X as “a digital Fort Knox.”
“Premature sales of bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value,” Sacks claimed. “Now, the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings.”
The executive order also established a U.S. digital asset stockpile, consisting of digital assets other than bitcoin, which are also in possession of the Treasury via forfeitures.
UPI has contacted the Treasury for comment.
The White House said agencies under the executive order are directed to provide an accounting of their digital assets to the treasury and the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
“The purpose of the Stockpile is responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department,” Sacks said.
Last week, Trump announced that the United States would create what he called a “strategic crypto reserve” that would house bitcoin and other digital currencies together.
Though initially skeptical about cryptocurrencies, Trump embraced the digital currency industry and its enthusiastic during his 2024 campaign.
Since being elected, he has created what some analysts have described as a crypto-friendly Cabinet and government. Billionaire Elon Musk is the most well-known of the new officials, having been put unofficially in charge of the quasi-government agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
Sacks is a Musk ally and both are considered members of the so-called PayPal mafia of founders and executives of the digital payment processing service who have gone on to develop other successful tech and venture capitalist companies.
The announcement comes a day before the first-ever White House Crypto Summit, which is to be attended by “prominent founders,” CEOS and investors form the crypto industry.
