Trump signs order to create U.S. strategic crypto reserve

This happened a day before meeting with cryptocurrency industry leaders at the White House.

The reserve will be funded with bitcoin the federal government seized through criminal and civil asset forfeitures, White House crypto czar David Sacks said in a post on X.

At Friday’s White House crypto summit, Trump is expected to officially announce plans for a reserve holding bitcoin and four other cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this week, Trump named the five assets: bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana, and cardano. Prices of each went up after his announcement.

It’s still unclear how the reserve will work or help taxpayers. Sacks said the government will try to increase the value of its holdings but didn’t give details.

“The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called 'digital gold'," Sacks said.

Trump’s order tells Treasury and Commerce to find “budget-neutral strategies” to get more bitcoin without extra taxpayer costs.

There will also be a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile” for other tokens, but the government won’t add more unless they come from forfeitures, Sacks said.

After Sacks’ post, bitcoin briefly dropped over 5% to below $85,000, and was last at $88,109.

Bitcoin had hit an all-time high of $109,071.86 in January, helped by Trump’s support and hopes for friendlier crypto rules.

“This is the most underwhelming and disappointing outcome we could have expected for this week,” said Charles Edwards, founder of hedge fund Capriole Investments, on X. “No active buying means this is just a fancy title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed with the Govt. This is a pig in lipstick."

Trump’s support for crypto, after the industry spent millions backing him and Republicans, has raised concerns from conservatives and crypto supporters. Some worry it benefits wealthy insiders and makes the industry look bad. Supporters say the reserve could help taxpayers if crypto prices rise.

Sacks estimated the U.S. government holds around 200,000 bitcoin and said selling it too early has cost American taxpayers $17 billion.

Earlier, it was reported that Bitcoin fell to $94,476.18, hitting a three-week low of approximately $91,441.89 in February. Ether dropped about 24%, falling back to levels last seen in early September.