Trump Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Using Seized Crypto
Trump has officially signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, just days after announcing his administration’s broader crypto strategy.
This reserve will be funded using Bitcoin seized through criminal and civil forfeiture cases, meaning taxpayers won’t bear any costs, according to White House AI and Crypto advisor David Sacks.
The U.S. government currently holds around 198,109 BTC, valued at roughly $17 billion. Under the new directive, these holdings will remain untouched, serving as a digital equivalent of Fort Knox. Treasury and Commerce officials have been tasked with exploring ways to expand the reserve without additional taxpayer expenses.
READ MORE: U.S. Targets Iranian Darknet Operator Over $1.6 Million in Crypto Laundering
Alongside Bitcoin, a separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile will be formed to manage other confiscated cryptocurrencies, though no new assets will be added beyond those obtained through legal actions. The administration’s use of terms like “reserve” and “stockpile” has sparked some confusion in recent months.
Sacks praised Trump for his leadership in advancing crypto policy, as industry leaders prepare to attend a digital asset summit hosted by the president. Earlier in the week, Trump’s plan for a broader crypto reserve, which would include XRP, Solana, and Cardano, raised debate within the community over the merits of including certain assets.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
