The U.S. Treasury will not allocate federal funds to purchase Bitcoin directly, opting instead to expand its holdings through coins seized in criminal and civil cases, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Bessent framed the strategy as a “budget-neutral expansion” of the government’s Bitcoin reserves, aligning with President Donald Trump’s push to treat the token as a strategic asset on par with gold and oil. He noted that coins already confiscated in cases such as Silk Road and Bitfinex will remain under federal custody.
“We are not going to buy Bitcoin,” Bessent said. “We will use confiscated assets to build reserves and stop selling coins in government possession.”
Analysts at Bitcoin data site Bitbo estimated that by December 2024 U.S. authorities may have controlled as much as 198,012 BTC — worth about $23.6 billion at today’s prices. Yet the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) reports a much smaller figure of 28,988 BTC currently held, well below earlier projections.
cryptocurrency journalist and market analyst who has accumulated great experience. He shares practicable insight with traders, investors, and enthusiasts of the crypto world. John loves to explore the dynamic Web3 space, which involves blockchain technology or different coins besides decentralized applications (dApps) leading decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts or interoperability among blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), real-world assets (RWAs), and artificial intelligence combining blockchain. John has worked for leading cryptocurrency resources, among them FORECK.INFO, CoinGape, CryptoNews, and Business2Community
