Trump Signs Order to Create a ‘Crypto Reserve’
The first-of-its-kind reserve will be anchored by a stash of Bitcoin the government already owns, estimated to be worth billions of dollars.
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to create a national stockpile of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, an audacious idea that has been widely criticized as a scheme to enrich crypto investors.
The basis of the stockpile will be a stash of Bitcoin, estimated to be worth as much as $17 billion, that the United States has seized in legal cases over the years.
The order also calls for federal agencies to develop strategies to buy more Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, as long as those purchases do not generate extra costs for taxpayers.
“This Executive Order underscores President Trump’s commitment to making the U.S. the ‘crypto capital of the world,’” said David Sacks, the White House’s crypto and A.I. policy czar, in a post on social media. He said the United States would not sell any Bitcoin in the reserve, which he likened to “a digital Fort Knox.”
Since Mr. Trump took office in January, his administration has moved rapidly to elevate the crypto industry, a volatile sector that had battled with federal regulators for years. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped lawsuits against two of the biggest U.S. crypto companies and halted investigations into several others. And on Friday, Mr. Trump is scheduled to host crypto executives at the White House for a first-of-its-kind “crypto summit.”
Mr. Trump has a personal stake in the success of the crypto industry, creating conflicts of interests that have raised alarms with government ethics experts. Last year he started a business, World Liberty Financial, that offers a cryptocurrency called WLFI. Just days before his inauguration, he also began selling a so-called memecoin — a type of cryptocurrency tied to an online joke or a celebrity figure.
