President Trump ordered his administration to build a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025. Sixteen months later, the White House acknowledges the process is still being worked out. Bloomberg reported Monday that the Departments of Treasury and Commerce are both making competing cases to run the fund — a bureaucratic turf war that has added another layer of complexity to a project that the crypto sector had widely considered a done deal when Trump declared it. "The Trump administration continues to evaluate the best structure for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile," White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told CoinDesk in a statement.
What Has Actually Happened in 16 Months
The executive order Trump signed in March 2025 directed his administration to build two separate funds: a long-term Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate stockpile of other cryptocurrencies. Federal agencies have since examined what crypto holdings the US government currently holds — a figure the White House has declined to share publicly — and have been devising a plan for building the funds. That plan has now been complicated by Treasury and Commerce both seeking control of the vehicles, according to Bloomberg's Monday report.
The government's estimated Bitcoin holdings of more than 300,000 BTC — worth approximately $21 billion at current prices — have not been formally transferred into any reserve structure. Presidential executive orders do not carry the weight of law, and White House chief crypto adviser Patrick Witt and his predecessor have both said Congressional backing is required to fully activate the funds. No such legislation has advanced in either the Senate or House of Representatives, despite efforts simmering in both chambers.
The Congressional Constraint — and the Midterm Risk
The legislative pathway for the Bitcoin reserve faces a specific and near-term political risk. Republicans currently hold the majority in both chambers, which is the precondition for the kind of crypto-friendly legislation that would formalize Trump's reserve concept into law. If Republicans lose the majority in either chamber in this November's midterm elections, legislation formalizing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is unlikely to advance — and the executive order that initiated the process would remain exactly what it is today: a directive without the force of law and without the appropriations authority needed to act on it.
The CLARITY Act — which has been progressing toward a Senate floor vote — addresses the broader crypto regulatory framework but does not specifically authorize the Bitcoin reserve. The reserve requires its own legislative vehicle, and that vehicle has not yet emerged from committee in either chamber.
The Price Problem — Buying at $93,000 Was the Plan
When Trump issued the executive order in March 2025, Bitcoin was trading near $93,000. The administration was asked to come up with ways to acquire more Bitcoin without using taxpayer money, and several mechanisms have been floated — including proposals to use proceeds from gold certificate revaluations and other non-appropriated sources. But if the government had begun buying when Trump called for it, they would have been acquiring at $93,000. Bitcoin has dropped by approximately a third since then to the current price just above $63,000 — meaning the delay, whatever its frustrations for crypto advocates, has created a substantially more favorable acquisition price environment than existed at the order's inception.
Whether that silver lining translates into actual buying depends entirely on resolving the structure, departmental home, and legislative authorization questions that remain unanswered 16 months into the process.
The Conflict of Interest Context
Monday's reserve update arrives two weeks after Trump's 927-page federal financial disclosure revealed more than $1.2 billion in personal crypto earnings for 2025 — including $636 million from his memecoin business and $515 million from World Liberty Financial token sales. Trump also disclosed more than $50 million in personal Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings. The simultaneous presence of a president with $50 million in personal Bitcoin holdings, a disclosed $1.2 billion in crypto earnings, and direct removal power over the SEC and CFTC commissioners following the Supreme Court's Trump v. Slaughter ruling — combined with an administration working to establish a government Bitcoin reserve — creates a conflict of interest landscape that Senate Democrats have repeatedly flagged as requiring closer scrutiny.
The White House has not directly addressed how the personal holdings and the government reserve planning are being managed from an ethics perspective — the same ethics provision that has been one of the sticking points in the CLARITY Act's Senate negotiations.
Where the Reserve Stands
The US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve exists as a concept, an executive order, an estimated 300,000 BTC in existing government holdings that have not been transferred anywhere, and a stated intention to acquire more. It does not yet exist as a legal entity, a funded structure, a designated home within the federal government, or a legislatively authorized program. The White House's statement that it continues to evaluate the "best structure" is the same language that has been used throughout the past 16 months without producing a definitive answer.
For Bitcoin markets, the reserve's eventual formalization — if and when it occurs — represents a potential demand catalyst of significant scale. A government commitment to hold existing 300,000 BTC as a long-term reserve and potentially acquire more at current prices well below the $93,000 level at which the order was issued would represent one of the most concrete institutional demand signals the asset has received. The frustration among crypto advocates is not that the reserve is a bad idea — it is that the gap between the declaration and the execution has now stretched to 16 months with no clear timeline for resolution.
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