“We are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up,” Bessent said of the Bitcoin reserve. “We’re going to stop selling that.”
The Treasury Secretary added he estimates the U.S. government’s current Bitcoin holdings to equal between $15 billion to $20 billion in value at current prices.
Bessent’s comments mark a departure from previous statements by White House officials on the subject.
For months, Trump officials have floated the possibility of the federal government purchasing additional Bitcoin. The prospect has thrilled many Bitcoin holders, both due to the legitimacy such acquisitions could grant the cryptocurrency, and the potential deflationary impact massive state-level purchases of the token could have on its price.
In March, shortly after Trump established a federal strategic Bitcoin reserve, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks told Decrypt that Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would have the final say on determining whether to purchase additional Bitcoin via “budget-neutral” methods, such as selling off other government reserve assets including gold.
For months, White House officials have since repeated the line that they want to “acquire as much Bitcoin as possible.”
But plans for such acquisitions never materialized in the months since the Bitcoin reserve’s announcement. Late last month, the White House released a sprawling,168-page report on crypto policy recommendations. Though it was supposed to include further information about the Trump administration’s crypto reserve plans, it notably omitted any details on the subject.
decrypt.co
