President Donald Trump’s U.S. bitcoin reserve doesn’t exist yet, and there is no mechanism in the federal government for the wholesale purchase of crypto.
Keep that in mind when considering this weekend’s speculation about the price point that would cause the White House to push a buy button, thanks in large part to CNBC speculator Jim Cramer. There is no such button.
The president did order a “strategic reserve” established to hold bitcoin, but that didn’t make it spring into existence. The Treasury Department and crypto advisers spent months auditing the federal holdings of crypto (though White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt told CoinDesk last week that they still won’t share a number). But the process hit a snag: The advocates said they still need Congress to establish the stockpile under law.
The crypto sector’s new U.S. law for stablecoin issuers didn’t include it, nor does the sweeping crypto market structure bill currently grinding through the U.S. Senate. Clearing legislation through this Congress — even less controversial matters — is a tall order, and industry lobbyists are currently focused on the bill to finally establish market and oversight regulations for digital assets. A reserve may not even be second on the list of priorities, because crypto tax rules also beckon.
When Cramer suggested on-air that Trump has a plan, saying, “I heard at 60 he’s going to fill the bitcoin reserve,” the crypto markets took some notice. The struggling asset has recently dropped as low as $62,840 but spent some days hovering just under $70,000, and if the U.S. government stood ready to swoop in at $60,000, that could be a big deal. But the rumor isn’t supported by what’s going on with the federal fund.
For now, Trump’s executive order last year to set up the bitcoin reserve and a separate stockpile of other crypto assets waits to be fulfilled. And his order carefully rejected the idea of the government purchasing crypto with taxpayer money (which disappointed the industry at the time). Instead, he directed his administration to stop selling seized assets, so anything grabbed in civil or criminal cases is now allegedly being set aside for the future reserve.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the weekend speculation. The government’s current bitcoin holding may hover around $23 billion, according to data from Arkham Intelligence on U.S.-associated wallets.
Some ideas have been floated by Trump’s advisers and by lawmakers such as Senator Cynthia Lummis for how the feds could buy bitcoin without tapping taxpayers, but no solutions have yet been chosen. And Lummis’ legislative efforts to enact the reserve haven’t advanced, even as her Senate tenure dwindles after her announcement she’ll retire after this year.
During Congressional hearings last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked whether the government was in a position to bail out bitcoin, and Bessent said he had no such authority. More specifically, though, he said he can’t order U.S. bankers to start buying up crypto.
For government purchases, the industry may be better off looking toward states at the moment. Several state governments pursued bitcoin reserve authorities last year and have been more nimble than the federal government in setting up pockets of their budgets meant for digital assets.
Read More: Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have a Bitcoin Reserve, Yet?