Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
At around 8 a.m. on March 7, on the eve of the White House Crypto Summit, David Sacks, the White House AI and Crypto Director, officially stated : President Trump has signed an executive order to establish a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve. The reserve uses Bitcoin obtained by the government through asset forfeiture procedures and will not increase the burden on taxpayers. (For more information on the summit, see the article White House Crypto Summit Waiting Guide: May Determine the Future of the Crypto Industry ) Perhaps influenced by this news, the market interpreted it as good news is bad news, and the price of BTC plummeted from more than US$90,000 to around US$84,000. As of the time of writing, it has rebounded to above US$87,000.
Odaily Planet Daily will give a brief interpretation of the presidential executive order in this article, and summarize the mainstream views of industry insiders, in order to look forward to the White House Encryption Summit to be held around 3 am tomorrow for readers reference.
The White House: The next center of the crypto world, the starting point for the United States to become the crypto capital
The reason why the crypto market reacted mediocrely and even saw a Sell The News selling phenomenon is that, at present, the content of the presidential executive order does not contain much news to stimulate BTC buying. Instead, it further compresses the imagination space of favorable policies of the US government.
President Trump’s Executive Order: BTC Reserve Plan at No Cost to Taxpayers
Combining the information disclosed by David Sacks and the fact sheet of the BTC reserve plan given by the White House Office, we can draw the following key information:
BTC Reserve Source: The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will be capitalized using Bitcoin owned by the U.S. Treasury Department that was confiscated as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. (David Sacks emphasized: This means that it will not cost taxpayers a penny)
Existing reserve information: Information that has not been fully audited shows that the US government owns about 200,000 bitcoins. Subsequently, the federal government will conduct a comprehensive accounting of the digital assets held. The United States will not sell any bitcoins deposited in the reserve, and it will be retained as a store of value. The status is equivalent to digital gold, just like the Fort Knox reserve of gold.
Past asset book losses: Previous premature selling of Bitcoin has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $17 billion.
Digital Asset Stockpile : In addition to BTC, the US Treasury will also manage other digital assets confiscated in criminal or civil proceedings ( according to Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett, this may include previously mentioned XRP, ADA, ETH and SOL and other assets) to establish a reserve pool, which the Treasury Department has the right to sell. The US government will not acquire digital assets through means other than forfeiture proceedings. (Original words: The government will not acquire additional assets for the US Digital Asset Stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.)
Subsequent planned actions: Institutions must provide the Secretary of the Treasury and the Presidential Digital Asset Market Working Group with a comprehensive accounting of their digital asset holdings; the government will take proactive steps to advance internal centralized ownership, control, and management to ensure appropriate supervision, accurate tracking, and a consistent approach to managing government cryptocurrency holdings; avoid the confusion of decentralized processing of cryptocurrencies.
Relevant decision makers: Trump has fulfilled his promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Task Force Executive Director Bo Hines have made important contributions to this.
Interpretation of the BTC reserve plan: Led by the Ministry of Finance, the BTC competition has begun
In summary, the advancement of the BTC reserve plan in President Trump’s executive order depends on the follow-up operations of the U.S. Treasury Department, mainly including:
Comprehensive audit of existing BTC holdings: According to Lookonchain monitoring , the US government public wallet currently holds 198,109 BTC, worth approximately $16.92 billion. Previously, the US government transferred approximately 222,000 bitcoins (valued at $3.28 billion at the time, and currently valued at approximately $19.42 billion) to platforms such as Coinbase and Coinbase Prime, with an average selling price of $14,736. (Odaily Planet Daily Note: In addition, the US government wallet also holds over $120 million in USDT, $118 million in ETH, $64.13 million in WBTC, $23.35 million in BNB and other cryptocurrencies.)
A look at the U.S. government’s crypto holdings
The US government has started a BTC reserve competition: Judging from the official publication, the Trump administration attaches great importance to fulfilling its previous campaign promises, and has repeatedly emphasized that the promise has been fulfilled; at the same time, US crypto-friendly Senator and Chair of the US Senate Banking and Digital Assets Subcommittee Cynthia Lummis also published an article emphasizing that the United States is becoming the capital of Bitcoin and digital assets, and America is so ₿ack. Trump also said in the fact sheet: I am very positive and open to cryptocurrency companies and emerging industries related to it. Our country must be a leader in this field. Earlier, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan also wrote in his investment memo: Trump is like a game changer. The establishment of the US Crypto Strategic Reserve will be regarded as the first shot in a Bitcoin arms race and will trigger a domino effect. Honduras, Mexico or Guatemala, look at El Salvador, now its the turn of the United States to acquire Bitcoin. Will countries such as Dubai, Qatar or Saudi Arabia envy the United States leading position? Countries may regard Bitcoin as an important monetary asset. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong once wrote in a blog post on Economic Freedom: The next global arms race will be in the digital economy, not in space ; asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano once said : Officials everywhere should include BTC in their balance sheets. Its not like you can dig more gold out of the ground. The race to adopt Bitcoin is mainly driven by currency depreciation, noting that U.S. residents have lost about 25% in the past five years. purchasing power.”
Of course, not all people in the cryptocurrency industry are optimistic about this move, and the current views in the market can be said to be mixed.
Industry insiders’ opinions: Most believe that it will trigger a BTC reserve boom, while a few are pessimistic about the implementation of the specific plan
Overall, the US government officials represented by Cynthia Lummis are optimistic about BTC reserves. Although it is different from the previous BTC Strategic Reserve Plan Vision of purchasing 1 million BTC within 5 years , Trumps signing of the presidential executive order to promote BTC reserves is already a milestone. The following are representative views of industry insiders:
Strategy founder: Willing to buy extra BTC for the US government
Under David Sacks’ tweet announcing his BTC reserve plan, Strategy founder Michael Saylor commented : “I have several budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin…”, directly showing his eagerness to offer advice.
Core Scientific board member: You should sell gold and buy BTC
Eric Weiss, a member of the board of directors of Core Scientific, similarly commented : “Selling gold to buy Bitcoin is budget balancing.”
Bitwise: A no-brainer bullish move
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said in a post : This move 1) greatly reduces the possibility of the US government banning Bitcoin in the future; 2) significantly increases the possibility of other countries establishing strategic Bitcoin reserves; 3) accelerates the speed at which other countries consider establishing strategic Bitcoin reserves, because it creates a short-term window for countries to get ahead of possible additional purchases by the United States; 4) It makes it more difficult for institutions - from national account advisory platforms to quasi-governmental agencies like the IMF - to position Bitcoin as something dangerous or inappropriate to hold. Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen Also said : US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve means - other countries will buy Bitcoin; wealth managers have no excuses; financial institutions have no excuses; pension/endowment funds have no excuses; the fear of US dumping BTC is gone; US may buy more; the probability of states buying just went up; the probability of the government banning Bitcoin is absolutely zero. This changes everything. Think long term.
DForcenet founder: If you don’t sell, you will buy. We are eagerly awaiting the BTC income diversification plan
Mingdao, founder of DForcenet, commented : “Government attitude: not selling but buying (bullish). Speculative ideas about budget neutrality: 1. Rebalance gold reserves to BTC; 2. Fund BTC miners through BTC bonds and lend BTC to crypto companies (Coinbase, Blackrock, etc.); 3. Buy Bitcoin with cryptocurrency taxes (or allow taxes to be paid in Bitcoin); 4. DeFi liquidity mining with BTC.”
Bankless founder: Other governments will follow suit, crazy bullish
David Hoffman, founder of Bankless, said: Anyone selling BTC strategic reserve news is a performance that will never succeed; Bitcoin enthusiasts have been discussing this topic for more than a decade; all governments will follow suit. Governments around the world are now holding BTC, not selling. Crazy bullish.
Coinbase CEO: G20 countries are expected to follow the US in establishing Bitcoin reserves
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a post that the U.S. government’s move on Bitcoin reserves is of historic significance, and that the Trump administration has done an excellent job of execution in this regard. He expects that many G20 countries will pay attention to and eventually follow the U.S. leadership.
Galaxy Research Director: The US government can put a maximum of 88,000 BTC into strategic reserves, and more than 110,000 BTC must be returned to Bitfinex
Different from the highly optimistic industry insiders mentioned above, Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, wrote : We believe that the current balance of Bitcoin available for the US government to use as a strategic reserve is at most 88,000 BTC, which is only 43% of the current government holdings. This is because of the approximately 198,000 BTC currently held by the US government, 112,000 BTC will be returned to Bitfinex. ( Odaily Note: The large amount of BTC held by the US government came from the investigation of the Bitfinex theft case that year. The original case occurred in August 2016. About 120,000 BTC were lost during the theft. Bitfinex is trying to recover this part of BTC, and it is expected that a lengthy legal process will still be required in the future.)
As of the time of writing, David Sacks once again issued the White House Executive Order on the Establishment of a Strategic BTC Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Reserve , which provides legal clarification and boundary limits for subsequent specific operations, emphasizing:
Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit an assessment of future considerations for the establishment and management of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the United States Digital Asset Reserve, including the account in which the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the United States Digital Asset Reserve should be maintained and the need for legislation necessary to implement any aspect of this order or to properly manage and operate such accounts;
Within 30 days of the date of this order, the head of each agency shall provide the Secretary of the Treasury and the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets with a comprehensive accounting of all government digital assets held by the agency, including any information regarding the custodial accounts in which such government digital assets are currently held, as necessary to transfer government digital assets to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve or the United States Digital Asset Vault. If the agency does not hold any government digital assets, the agency shall confirm that fact to the Secretary of the Treasury and the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets within 30 days of the date of this order.
White House Crypto Summit Preview: Focus on President Trumps Executive Order, Crypto Policy Released
The White House Crypto Summit, which will be held at around 3 a.m. tomorrow (March 8, Beijing time), will also become an important focus for determining the direction of cryptocurrency. From the current information, we can also get a glimpse of the focus of the discussion at that time:
Participants: Half political and half business, encryption is king
According to the guest list of the White House Cryptocurrency Summit issued by Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett, it currently includes:
Exchange leaders: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek; Gemini founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss;
Crypto industry professionals: MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor; MARA CEO Fred Thiel; BitGo CEO Mike Belshe; Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse; Exodus co-founder Jp Richardson, World Liberty Fund co-founder Zach Witkoff, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov; Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey; FalconX CEO Raghu Yarlagadda; Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley;
Investors: Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, Multicoin Capital managing partner Kyle Samani, a16z general partner Chris Dixon, WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg;
Government officials: Chris Giancarlo, former chairman of the CFTC ; Brian B rooks , former deputy director of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency .
In summary, more than 90% of the participants are representative figures in the crypto industry, and many industry professionals have previously supported Trumps campaign with real money. This summit may be the first large-scale meeting since Trump took office as the 47th President of the United States. Some community members jokingly called it the American version of the private entrepreneurs symposium.
From this perspective, it is not only important who went, but also who did not go.
Affected by the related news, US stock crypto concept stocks such as COIN, MSTR, and MARA may fluctuate violently by then. Odaily Planet Daily reminds readers to pay attention to risks.
Other policy speculations: Crypto taxation, stablecoin regulation
According to a post by @mikealfred, a user on the X platform, multiple sources have confirmed that the Trump administration will make a major announcement on digital asset taxation at tomorrows summit. It is expected that this announcement will involve new regulatory measures or plans, which may have a profound impact on the digital asset industry. More details will be announced during the summit.
Earlier, according to market news , Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev said that Trump may pass stablecoin legislation this year.
In addition, on March 21 , the US SEC will also host the first crypto industry roundtable meeting, a total of five meetings, at which time the detailed plans for tomorrows crypto summit may be promoted.
Conclusion: Everything is ready, just waiting for the east wind
As for the future development of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, everything will come out at the first White House Crypto Summit around 3 a.m. Beijing time tomorrow.
Whether the Trump administration can push the Bitcoin strategic reserve plan to be submitted to Congress for decision on the next step of purchase may also become clear at that time.
