President Donald Trump said on Aug. 20 that the United States is considering accumulating sizable amounts of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. While current law gives his administration several ways to increase federal crypto holdings, no public authority gives the Treasury a funded program for multibillion-dollar open-market purchases.
For Bitcoin, Trump's 2025 executive order already directs the Treasury and Commerce Departments to develop budget-neutral acquisition strategies. This means any Bitcoin buildup would need to rely on mechanisms that do not require new congressional appropriations.
The situation is different for cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. The same executive order limits additional acquisitions of non-Bitcoin assets to forfeiture and civil-money-penalty channels, meaning the government can only add such assets to its holdings through seized funds or penalty payments unless further executive or legislative action occurs.
