The United States has ushered in the era of Bitcoin reserves. Can the White House roundtable send more policy signals?

Author: Yangz, Techub News

On March 7, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order to establish strategic Bitcoin reserves and U.S. digital asset reserves, fulfilling his promises at the Nashville Bitcoin Conference before taking office.

Among them, the initial funds for Bitcoin strategic reserves come from Bitcoin confiscated by the US government through criminal and civil lawsuits over the years (David Sacks, head of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency affairs at the White House, said that without a complete audit, the US government currently owns about 200,000 Bitcoins, and the executive order requires a comprehensive accounting of the federal government's digital asset holdings; Arkham data shows that the US government currently owns about 198,109 Bitcoins, worth about 17.38 billion US dollars), and authorizes Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explore the acquisition of more Bitcoins with a budget-neutral strategy without increasing the burden on taxpayers; U.S. digital asset reserves include digital assets other than Bitcoin in criminal or civil lawsuits, which are managed by the Department of Treasury.

The Executive Order reads, "within 30 days from the date of issuance of this Order, agencies shall review their authority to transfer any government Bitcoin held to Bitcoin Strategic Reserves and submit reports to the Secretary of the Treasury. Government Bitcoin deposited in Bitcoin Strategic Reserves shall not be sold and shall be used as reserve assets in the United States and used to achieve government goals in accordance with applicable laws." (The same applies to the digital asset reserves part)

The battle between positive and negative

As soon as the news came out, the market fluctuated immediately. Bitcoin fell from a high of 91,000 USDT to 84,000 USDT at around 8:00 this morning, volatility of nearly 7.6% in one hour, and then rebounded to around 88,000 USDT. In addition, the market is also caught in a "good bad news". On the one hand, some people believe that the strategic reserve order is not as expected, causing traders to "sell the news"; on the other hand, some people believe that in the long run, this is a simple and great benefit.

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise, said that the US strategic reserves of Bitcoin will significantly reduce the possibility of the US government "banning" Bitcoin in the future, and significantly increase the possibility of other countries following the trend to establish Bitcoin reserves or speeding up their reserve process. In addition, it can make it more difficult for various institutions, including national wealth management platforms to quasi-government agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to position Bitcoin as a dangerous or unsuitable asset. David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, said that when recorded in history, the decision “will prove to be the most important monetary policy decision since the Bretton Woods system.” In addition, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko vividly compared the executive order to a scalpel, saying , “The government has not implemented a bailout for cryptocurrencies, it just further eliminates regulatory uncertainty that has been around for the past four years. We need a stablecoin bill, guidelines to allow banks to deposit and access to cryptocurrencies, clear rules set by the US SEC and CFTC on token issuance and DeFi.”

In addition, some investors have analyzed the significance of US Bitcoin strategic reserves from other perspectives. From the perspective of the relationship between Bitcoin and the US dollar, Blue Fox Notes believes that building cryptocurrency national reserves can be said to be "advancing, attacking, retreating, and defending" for the United States. Blue Fox Notes said , "Perhaps, building strategic reserves of cryptocurrency is a defensive way for the US dollar to international monetary system. When Bitcoin grows large enough, the human monetary system will probably turn upside down. Therefore, for the US, if it cannot be stopped, the sooner it takes action, the easier it is to gain initiative. In addition, if the US dollar declines in the future is replaced by fiat currency systems of other countries, then once the US dollar loses its hegemony status, cryptocurrency systems such as Bitcoin can be used as an alternative to countering the fiat currency systems of other countries." Primitive Ventures investment partner @YettaSing also retweeted, "If Bitcoin is included in the national reserves, it can only indicate that there are cracks in the sovereign monetary system itself, and countries need to seek new credit anchors. This is a huge recognition of the attributes of Bitcoin's currency."

Unlike the above optimism, many investors believe that this executive order does not meet expectations and is considered a "bad." @hexiecs said that this executive order is not breaking news. "Bitcoin's strategic reserves have been warmed up for a long time. Part of the previous expectations of rising are that the United States will use its strategic reserves to buy more Bitcoin. Isn't it an obvious negative news? "In addition, many investors have expressed concerns about the US government's possible open confiscation and confiscation of crypto assets in the future. @realwuzhe said, "The United States has now established a Bitcoin reserve, but it is not ready to use taxpayers' money to buy coins. Where does the new currency come from? It must be obtained through law enforcement. Next, the United States has great motivation to carry out law enforcement actions on overseas exchanges and coin holders."

The debate between positive and negative may be largely due to the fact that "position determines the head." In addition to the debate, there are some details about the US Bitcoin strategic reserves worth paying attention to. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, pointed out that "seizure" and "confiscation" are different. "The balance of Bitcoin that can be used as strategic reserves for the US government is up to 88,000, accounting for only 43% of the current government's holdings. This is because 112,000 will be returned to Bitfinex." Of course, it is still unknown whether the US government will eventually return this bitcoin. In addition, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve signed by Trump is not the same as the Strategic Federal Reserve that Cythia Lummis has promoted at the federal level. Alex Xu, research partner at Mint Ventures, pointed out that the former can be directly controlled by the government, while the latter needs to pass Congress legislation; the former itself does not have a separate budget for purchasing Bitcoin (if it is necessary to increase it, it requires Congress approval), and the latter will provide a separate budget for purchasing Bitcoin (the goal is to buy 1 million coins in five years). Therefore, "David Sacks said that "the government will not acquire other assets for reserve assets" does not mean that the strategic Bitcoin reserve in the public's impression suddenly becomes something that only relies on fines and does not spend money alone to buy Bitcoin."

summary

In my opinion, the symbolic significance of the United States in establishing a strategic reserve of Bitcoin is far greater than the substantial effect of short-term policy implementation. In the short term, it is normal for the market to react negatively to policy details that are less than expected. In the long run, this step is still an important signal of changes in the global financial landscape. Perhaps this is not a positive thing that can immediately reverse the current market, but there is no doubt that this will be a decision written into history.

Meanwhile, the market has focused on the White House crypto summit to be held in the early morning of March 8. According to Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett, the people confirmed to attend include Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Gemini founder Winklevoss brothers, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Multicoin managing partner Kyle Samani, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey, etc., and Trump will also make a speech.

Between policy implementation, market response and the upcoming summit, the U.S. cryptocurrency policy is at a new turning point. Whether this roundtable forum on Saturday can bring more signals to the market or provide more substantial progress in the implementation of Bitcoin strategic reserves will undoubtedly become the focus of future development of the market and industry.