President Donald Trump’s order to establish a bitcoin (BTC) reserve is meant to set up the original cryptocurrency as a U.S. reserve asset that deserves special treatment apart from other crypto assets, according to a senior White House official.
The order’s additional crypto stockpile of other assets will only gather those obtained by the U.S. government in seizures, the official said on Friday, hours before an afternoon crypto summit at the White House. The bitcoin reserve, which the official said will start with an estimated 200,000 bitcoin currently in government hands, could get active investment in the future, if senior administration officials can find ways to put new money in without leaning on taxpayer funds.
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Meanwhile, the federal government will embark on an audit to figure out exactly how much it currently has in crypto that will be moved to the new funds, the official said.
The Friday summit will welcome a long list of crypto leaders — including top executives of Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Gemini, Chainlink and Robinhood — to offer their views on industry policy in a roundtable meeting with officials from the Trump administration.
Trump is also scheduled to appear at the 3 p.m. event, where he’s expected to speak about the executive order he signed on Thursday night that directed the establishment of the U.S. bitcoin reserve. The reserve — also including the second stockpile for all other crypto assets — will only hold digital assets seized through criminal and civil cases and not yet an active buying program, which came as a disappointment to some industry observers.
The summit marks a major turning point for the crypto industry in the U.S., signaling a dramatic turnaround from the reputational quagmire of 2022’s collapse to this invitation to share the sector’s goals with a friendly White House.
Executive orders aren’t permanent law, and the official said additional legislative action would be welcome.