The White House’s chief crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, and his predecessor in that role had both said they will need Congress to fully back the creation and activation of the crypto funds. Presidential orders do not carry the weight of law, and no legislation has yet been advanced, although such efforts have simmered among lawmakers in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and if Republicans lose the majority in the House or both chambers in this year’s midterm elections, such a bill is unlikely to formalize Trump’s concept anytime soon.
Read more: Those who cheered the US Bitcoin reserve have spent years watching Trump’s order languish
Even as the administration works out the structure for the funds, it’s unclear whether they will be able to pull the lever to officially put its bitcoin holdings — estimated at more than 300,000, or about $21 billion — into the virtual box.
The government’s bitcoin holdings would be a long-term investment. Trump and his administration have called it a strategic reserve, though it doesn’t fit the usual definition of that phrase because it’s meant to be held for a long period of time and not paid out in market emergencies.
When Trump issued the order, he asked his administration to come up with ways to acquire more bitcoin without spending taxpayer money. Several ideas have since been floated, but if they had started buying the asset when Trump asked for it, they would have bought for $93,000, and BTC has fallen by about a third since then to today’s price just above $64,000.
