The U.S. bitcoin reserve remains a project without a final structure: the White House acknowledges that the Donald Trump administration is still choosing the optimal scheme for long-term storage of Bitcoin and a separate fund for other digital assets.
Summary
- Key question: reserve model. Current status: the White House is still choosing a scheme for the federal Bitcoin reserve and a separate stock of digital assets. Responsible agencies: U.S. administration.
- Key question: project curator. Current status: according to Bloomberg, the dispute is over management. Responsible agencies: Department of the Treasury or Department of Commerce.
- Key question: reserve launch. Current status: White House advisers believe congressional support is needed, but the law has not yet advanced. Responsible agencies: Congress and the White House.
Why the Project Is Stalled
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered work to begin on a strategic bitcoin reserve in March 2025. At that time, the creation of a separate state stockpile of other cryptocurrencies was also discussed. Sixteen months later, the U.S. federal government still has not presented a ready-made scheme, although agencies have already assessed which crypto assets the United States possesses.
The main fork now is related to management. Bloomberg notes that both the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Commerce are being considered as curators. For the market, this is an important detail: the agency architecture will determine whether the reserve looks like a long-term government portfolio, an economic policy tool, or a separate structure for accounting digital assets.
“President Trump ran for office with a vision in which America should become the world capital of cryptocurrencies and other advanced technologies. To realize this vision, the Trump administration continues to evaluate the best structure for the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Reserve,” said White House Press Secretary Liz Houston.
The economic rationale for the initiative for the White House is to secure the U.S. role as a major player in the digital asset market and show that cryptocurrencies can be part of state financial policy. The flip side is the debate over law, control, and balance of interests: without clear rules, the reserve could increase political risks instead of reducing uncertainty.
For this idea to work, the White House needs to bring together several working concepts into a single legal framework:
- U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — the name of the future strategic Bitcoin reserve.
- Digital asset — a general term for digital assets.
- Asset — an asset that must be accounted for and stored according to clear rules.
- Policy — government policy around the reserve.
- Legislation — the legislative framework without which the launch may stall.
- Law — final legal norms for ownership, accounting, and management.
Without Congress, the Reserve May Remain on Paper
The White House’s chief cryptocurrency adviser Patrick Witt and his predecessor have already made it clear: a presidential order alone is not enough. Full creation and launch of the funds will require Congress. So far, no bill on this topic has advanced far enough, although similar ideas are being discussed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The political calendar makes the situation even more complicated. If Republicans lose their majority in the House of Representatives or in both chambers in the midterm elections, the chance to quickly formalize Donald Trump’s project into law will drop significantly. For the crypto industry, which was waiting for a turnaround after the period known as the Joe Biden presidency, this pause feels especially sensitive.
Even if the administration agrees on a structure, a key legal question remains: can the government officially transfer already-held bitcoins into the new reserve. Estimates suggest this could involve more than 300,000 BTC, or about $21 billion. Such coins usually appear in government hands after confiscations and legal procedures like Civil forfeiture in the United States and Asset forfeiture. Therefore, the integration plan for the reserve depends not only on politics, but also on property rights, accounting, and storage rules.
What Will Happen to Government Bitcoins
The White House calls the future fund a strategic reserve, but this wording does not fully match the usual meaning of the term. Typically, a strategic reserve implies the ability to use stocks in a crisis. In the case of Bitcoin, the logic is different: Bitcoin should be stored for the long term and not sold off during market turbulence.
- Storage: the basis of the future reserve may be the BTC already held by the government, not purchases at taxpayer expense.
- Accounting: assets will have to be legally separated from regular confiscated funds and rules established for their reflection on the balance sheet.
- Use: the stated logic is long-term storage of Bitcoin, not sales during sharp market movements.
- Management: various scenarios are possible — through the Department of the Treasury, Department of Commerce, or a separate interagency structure.
- Composition: Bitcoin remains the core of the future reserve; Ethereum and other assets are mentioned for the separate digital asset stock, and the final list depends on the future legal framework.
The main technical risk for such a reserve is not the price of Bitcoin, but access control: the government will have to protect keys, distribute powers, and keep records so that assets cannot be lost, withdrawn, or blocked due to a management error.
When Donald Trump ordered the project to be prepared, he specifically demanded to find ways to increase the Bitcoin stock without taxpayer money. Several ideas have been discussed since then, but none have led to a noticeable start of purchases. If the authorities had started buying the asset immediately after the order, the price would have been about $93,000 per BTC. Now the rate is holding slightly above $64,000.
Cryptocurrency has become one of the prominent topics of Trump’s political campaign, and many in the industry decided the reserve was almost guaranteed. In practice, the project turned out to be much slower: agencies are arguing over control, lawyers say a law is needed, and the market is waiting for concrete steps.
For private investors, the important thing is not the slogan about the reserve, but the speed of legal formalization. While there is no decision, news about the project may increase volatility, but does not replace ordinary risk assessment: the price of Bitcoin has already moved from about $93,000 to just above $64,000.
A separate background is created by the president’s personal financial reporting. According to his recent declaration, Donald Trump’s own bitcoin assets are valued at more than $50 million. This does not establish a direct link between personal assets and the federal reserve, but it raises questions about conflicts of interest: White House decisions on Bitcoin may be perceived by the market as policy that could affect the president’s personal wealth. Therefore, the fate of the federal reserve remains not only a question for the crypto market, but also part of a broader discussion about power, accounting, and trust in new financial instruments, including Ethereum and other digital assets.
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