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Bitcoin prices experienced a 5% decline on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Bitcoin’s value fell by 4.63% to $87,925 as of Friday morning, with other digital tokens such as Ethereum, XRP, Cardano, and Solana also seeing drops of up to 5%.
The executive order introduces a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and a “Digital Asset Stockpile” to centralize government-held cryptocurrencies. These reserves will primarily consist of digital assets seized through criminal and civil forfeiture cases, according to billionaire David Sacks.
He described the reserve as a “digital Fort Knox,” emphasizing Bitcoin’s role as a store of value comparable to “digital gold.”
“The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers,” Sacks explained in a statement on social media platform X.
Full accounting
The executive order also calls for a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings, which are estimated at 200,000 BTC—worth approximately $17.7 billion.
“Premature sales of Bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value. Now, the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings,” Sacks added.
- President Trump, while signing the order, remarked, “Made the promise, right?” as shown in a video shared online.
- CoinSwitch co-founder Ashish Singhal commended the decision to build Bitcoin reserves without relying on taxpayer funds, interpreting it as a step toward embracing the future of digital finance.
“While the market initially reacted with mixed signals, the long-term implications are undeniably bullish—clearer regulations, reduced uncertainty, and a stronger foundation for institutional adoption,” he stated.
What you should know
- The initiative stems from a campaign promise Trump made in July 2024 to establish a federal Bitcoin stockpile.
- A March 6 fact sheet released by the White House further details the creation of a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile,” which will include cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.
- However, Sacks clarified that the stockpile’s purpose is to ensure “responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets” under the Treasury Department and confirmed that no additional assets will be purchased for the stockpile beyond those acquired through forfeiture proceedings.
The US currently owns about $16.4 billion worth of Bitcoin and about $400 million worth of seven other tokens, largely attributable to asset forfeitures related to civil and criminal cases, Bloomberg reported.
Trump critics such as Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut have characterized Trump’s cryptocurrency venture as a conduit to potential corruption on a massive scale.
