President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening establishing a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, ahead of the White House Crypto Summit on Friday. Several industry leaders and members of President Trump's crypto task force are expected to attend the he first-of-its-kind event. Meanwhile, bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices rebounded modestly early Friday.
The White House Crypto Summit will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday, March 7. David Sacks, President Trump's AI and crypto czar, is expected to lead the affair.
Bitcoin Reserve, Crypto Stockpile
President Trump's executive order creates a strategic bitcoin reserve, made up of bitcoin owned by the Treasury Department that has been seized as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Other agencies are expected to evaluate an potential transfers of owned bitcoin to the strategic reserve.
The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited in the strategic reserve. Trump ordered the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce to develop "budget-neutral strategies" to acquire additional bitcoin, as long as they impose no costs on taxpayers.
The executive order also establishes a U.S. digital asset stockpile, which will include crytpos other than bitcoin that have been forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings. The government will not acquire additional assets for the stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings. The purpose of the stockpile is "responsible stewardship of the government's digital assets under the Treasury Department," according to Sacks.
President Trump previously said the digital asset stockpile would include alternative cryptocurrencies such as XRP, SOL and ADA.
The order also requires agencies provide full accounting of their digital asset holdings to the Treasury Secretary and the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
Sacks online estimated the government owns about 200,000 bitcoin, but added there has never been a complete audit.
Altcoin Inclusion
XRP is the native token for XRP Ledger, an open-source blockchain from crypto firm Ripple. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020 alleging that XRP was a security. In July 2023, a judge ruled that XRP was not a security for retail sales, but was a security for institutional sales. Ripple in 2024 was ordered to pay a $125 million fine, but that was far less than the $2 billion sought by the SEC. The regulator appealed the ruling in October. A new settlement has not been issued.
Solana is a hybrid proof-of-stake blockchain platform that focuses on Web3 infrastructure and allows users to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized apps (dApps) and games. President Trump launched his Official Trump meme coin on Solana prior to inauguration.
Similar to Solana, the Cardano blockchain allows users to create decentralized finance apps, NFTs, games and other projects.
Bitcoin and ethereum are two blue-chip cryptos that were considered prime candidates for the strategic reserve. But inclusion of SOL, XRP and ADA was a bit of a surprise.
Industry Reactions
"Incredible execution from the Trump administration and a historic moment for bitcoin and crypto," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote online Thursday night. "I expect many of the G20 to take notice, and eventually follow America's leadership."
Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise, also expects more countries to start their own reserves. "Do you think China is nor more or less likely to hold the 200,000 bitcoin they own? What about the UK? Russia? Japan? This is only the beginning," he wrote online.
Rasmussen added the reserve means that other countries will buy bitcoin. Meanwhile wealth managers, financial institutions, pensions and endowments "have no excuse." The market no longer has to fear if the U.S. will sell, while states are more likely to buy, he added.
"Establishing a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile is a huge moment for both crypto and American leadership on a global stage," Nathan McCauley, CEO of crypto bank Anchorage Digital wrote to IBD. "By holding bitcoin and other digital assets for the long term, the White House is taking a future-forward approach to bolstering American economic competitiveness — not just for the decade ahead, but for the next century. Where the U.S. leads, others follow. Expect this move to catalyze crypto adoption among more governments and institutions around the world."
Trump's Crypto Executive Order
The White House Crypto Summit comes after President Trump in January announced an executive order to turbocharge the digital assets industry. That executive order called to explore the creation and maintenance of a national digital-asset stockpile.
The summit may include other developments on part of the executive order. The President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which was established by the EO and is led by Sacks, has been tasked with recommending various regulatory proposals around digital assets within 180 days of its formation. That includes frameworks for issuing and operating digital assets, stablecoins, as well as oversight and risk management.
President Trump's executive order also called for actions to promote and develop the growth of dollar-backed stablecoins.
Rumors have been circulating on social media in recent weeks that the Trump administration will announce zero capital gains taxes for U.S.-based crypto projects. Eric Trump allegedly floated the proposal on his Discord channel in January, according to reports.
White House Crypto Summit Attendees
About 20 to 25 industry leaders are expected to attend the summit, in addition to members from the Trump administration, Decrypt reported.
Members from the Working Group will attend, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the acting heads of the SEC and the CFTC.
The entire invitee and guest list have not been revealed, but some attendees have been confirmed.
Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor will be at the summit, along with Coinbase's Armstrong. Other confirmed guests include Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Chainlink cofounder Sergey Nazarov, Exodus CEO JP Richardson and Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey. Matt Huang, cofounder of Paradigm; Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital; Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi; and Zach Witkoff, cofounder of Trump's World Liberty Financial, will also attend.
Fox Business reported that guests received their official invites from the White House this morning. Other guests may not have publicly confirmed their attendance.
What About The Crypto Council?
Meanwhile, President Trump and his administration have quietly nixed plans for his promised "crypto council," Decrypt reported.
Trump in December announced that Bo Hines would serve as the executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. The advisory group was intended to work alongside Sacks' Working Group to "foster innovation and growth in the digital asset space." The crypto council was expected to be a permanent part of the administration to allow industry leaders direct access to the White House.
However, Trump officials ditched those plans in January due to infighting among industry factions and demand for seats on the council, unnamed sources told Decrypt.
Instead, the White House will hold sporadic crypto summits like the one scheduled for Friday. The Trump administration will likely convene meetings of its internal crypto working group on a more regular basis.
Bitcoin, Crypto Price Action
Cryptocurrency prices initially fell on the reserve announcement because it meant the U.S. wouldn't be buying additional bitcoin.
Bitcoin on Friday traded around $90,700, after diving below $85,000 initially after the reserve announcement. The cryptocurrency on Tuesday fell to a low near $82,000. The price of bitcoin soared to near $95,000 on Sunday following Trump's social media post first announcing the strategic reserve.
The price of ethereum traded around $2,230 on Friday, still up from its Tuesday low near $2,100.
ADA is up nearly 42% over the past week, according to CoinMarketCap. The price of XRP and SOL have increased about 21% and 2%, respectively over the last seven days.
Coinbase stock has pared its gains on the week to around 2%. MSTR stock has jumped about 20% this week.
Bitcoin mining stocks have been mixed through Thursday. Mara Holdings has advanced more than 12%, while Core Scientific has tumbled about 27%.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust and the rest of the spot bitcoin ETFs have surged 7.5% this week.
You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison
