American President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish the country’s strategic Bitcoin reserve. The reserve will be capitalized by the US Federal government and will include around 200,000 Bitcoins it already seized from criminal and civil proceedings.
A day before his scheduled meeting with leaders of the cryptocurrency industry at the White House, Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish his long-time boasted strategic Bitcoin reserve on Thursday, marking a key step for mainstream crypto adoption. Capitalized by the federal government with the Bitcoins retained from criminal or civil asset forfeit proceedings, the Bitcoins in the reserve will be kept as a store of value and can’t be sold.
Detailing the conditions of the executive order, White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks revealed that the order necessitates a ‘full accounting’ of the government’s Bitcoin holdings. He also added that the Bitcoin holdings had never been fully audited and the government had earlier sold around 195,000 Bitcoins in the last 10 years for $366 million, which would be worth around $17 billion if it hadn’t been sold. In addition, the order allows the Treasury and Commerce Department to adopt budget-neutral strategies to obtain more Bitcoin holdings.
He also appreciated Trump, saying he kept his promise to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a digital stockpile and highlighted the strategy as an act to make the US the capital of the crypto world.
Trump Kept His Promise
Digital currencies were unfairly targeted under the Beiden administration, and many crypto enthusiasts and prodigies campaigned and funded Donald Trump’s election proceedings hoping under his government crypto could make a revolution in the US. Gaining support from crypto players, Trump promised a redefined approach to the US crypto industry.
Establishing a Bitcoin reserve was one of the many promises Trump made in his election campaign, and now the promise has become reality, the US will now have a strategic government-held Bitcoin reserve, allowing crypto to enter the mainstream.
Trump also made changes to the leadership in the US Security and Exchange Commission, appointing Mark Uyeda, a crypto advocate as the standing Chair. Under the new leadership, many crypto-friendly legislations have been made, including dropping enforcement actions it had taken against major crypto firms including Robinhood, Uniswap, Binance, Gemini, and Consensys and many are under process.
Trump’s stance towards digital assets has seen a wide transformation, from once dismissing Bitcoin as a scam and now positioning himself as an unofficial crypto president, though the transition is surprising it is quite advantageous to the crypto industry.
In addition to Bitcoin, the reserve will include four other popular cryptocurrencies; ADA, XRP, ETH, and SOL. Following the strategic reserve announcement the prices of ADA and XRP sharply increased.
Bitcoin Price Declined
Following Trump’s signing of an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, the price of Bitcoin plunged up to 5.7%, now trading at $88,148.84. The decline was right after David Sack’s post on X revealing the reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, meaning it will not cost taxpayers a dime.
