The Trump administration’s plan for a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has run into a pretty big problem. Two federal departments can’t agree on who should run it.
President Trump’s March 2025 executive order said Treasury should house the reserve. But some folks in the government aren’t sure Treasury has the legal authority to manage Bitcoin. The volatility is a concern. So now Commerce wants a piece of it. The Justice Department is also in the mix, working with both to figure out what’s legally possible.
This matters because the Bitcoin reserve is central to Trump’s vision of making the US the “crypto capital of the world.” It’s a major shift — treating Bitcoin as a strategic asset instead of just seized property.
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said the administration is still “evaluating the best structure” for the reserve. No final decision yet.
Right now the US holds 328,372 BTC — worth about $21 billion. That’s more than any other nation-state. But it’s also sold off chunks through court-ordered actions over the years.
Meanwhile, Congress is trying to make things official. The BITCOIN Act and the ARMA Act both aim to codify the reserve. ARMA would acquire 1 million Bitcoin over five years using budget-neutral strategies. White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt called it a “breakthrough” for getting everything legally sound. Under that bill, Bitcoin can’t be sold for 20 years — unless it’s to pay down the national debt (which is pushing $40 trillion).
Industry folks are bullish on all this. Tim Kotzman from the Bitcoin Treasuries Podcast says the reserve doesn’t just help Bitcoin — it validates a whole new category of how institutions allocate capital.
For now, only El Salvador has formally established a Bitcoin reserve and makes regular purchases. About 15 nation-states hold Bitcoin in some form. The US already holds more than any of them. The question is who gets to keep the keys.
