Author: Yangz, Techub News
On March 7, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order to establish a Bit strategic reserve and a U.S. digital asset stockpile, fulfilling his promise made at the Nashville Bit conference before taking office.
The initial funding for the Bit strategic reserve comes from Bits confiscated by the U.S. government through criminal and civil lawsuits over the years (White House AI and Crypto Affairs Officer David Sacks said that without a full audit, the U.S. government currently owns about 200,000 Bits, and the executive order requires a comprehensive accounting of the federal government's digital asset holdings; Arkham data shows the U.S. government currently owns about 198,109 Bits, worth about $1.738 billion), and authorizes Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explore strategies to acquire more Bits in a budget-neutral manner without increasing the tax burden on taxpayers; the U.S. digital asset stockpile includes digital assets other than Bit confiscated through criminal or civil proceedings, to be managed by the Treasury Department.
The executive order states that "within 30 days of the date of this order, each agency shall review its authority to transfer any government-held Bit to the Bit strategic reserve, and submit a report to the Secretary of the Treasury. Government-held Bit deposited into the Bit strategic reserve shall not be sold and shall be held as a reserve asset of the United States, to be used in accordance with applicable law to achieve government objectives." *(The digital asset stockpile part is similar.)
The Battle of Pros and Cons
As soon as the news broke, the market reacted with volatility. Bit fell from a high of $91,000 USDT around 8 a.m. this morning to $84,000 USDT, a 7.6% fluctuation in one hour, before rebounding to around $88,000 USDT. In addition, the market has also been embroiled in a "pros and cons" debate. On the one hand, some believe the strategic reserve policy is less than expected, causing traders to "sell the news"; on the other hand, some believe that in the long run, this is simply a huge positive.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said that the U.S. Bit strategic reserve will significantly reduce the likelihood of the U.S. government "banning" Bit in the future, and significantly increase the likelihood of other countries following suit in establishing Bit reserves or accelerating their reserve process, and will also make it more difficult for various institutions, including sovereign wealth management platforms and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to position Bit as a dangerous or unsuitable asset to hold. Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey said that this decision will be proven to be "the most important monetary policy decision since the Bretton Woods system" when recorded in history. In addition, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko vividly compared this executive order to a scalpel, saying that "the government has not bailed out cryptocurrencies, it has simply further eliminated the regulatory uncertainty that has existed over the past 4 years. We need a stablecoin bill, guidelines for banks to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies, and clear rules from the U.S. SEC and CFTC on token issuance and DeFi."
In addition, some investors have analyzed the significance of the U.S. Bit strategic reserve from other angles. Lanhubiji believes that building a cryptocurrency national reserve is a "proactive defense" for the U.S. in terms of the relationship between Bit and the U.S. dollar. Lanhubiji said, "Perhaps building a cryptocurrency strategic reserve is a defensive measure for the U.S. dollar international monetary system. When Bit grows big enough, the human monetary system is likely to be turned upside down, so for the U.S., if it cannot be stopped, the earlier it starts, the easier it is to gain the initiative. Furthermore, if the U.S. dollar declines in the future and is replaced by other national fiat currency systems, then once the U.S. dollar loses its hegemonic position, the Bit and other cryptocurrency systems can be used as an alternative to other national fiat currency systems." @YettaSing, an investment partner at Primitive Ventures, also retweeted that "if Bit is included in national reserves, it can only mean that the sovereign monetary system itself is cracking, and countries need to seek new credit anchors, which is a huge recognition of Bit's monetary attributes."
In contrast to the above optimistic sentiment, many investors believe that this executive order does not meet expectations and is a "negative." @hexiecs said that this executive order is not breaking news, "the Bit strategic reserve has been preheated for a very long time, and part of the previous rise was the expectation that the U.S. would buy more Bit with the strategic reserve, and now that the expectation has been dashed, isn't that obviously negative?" In addition, many investors are also concerned about the U.S. government's potential blatant "confiscation" of crypto assets in the future. @realwuzhe said, "The U.S. is now establishing a Bit reserve, but is not going to buy Bit with taxpayer money. Where will the new Bit come from? It must be through law enforcement means. Going forward, the U.S. will have a strong incentive to take enforcement action against overseas exchanges and large holders."
The debate between pros and cons may be largely due to "position determines mindset." Apart from the debate, there are some details about the U.S. Bit strategic reserve worth noting. Galaxy Digital research chief Alex Thorn pointed out that "seizure" and "confiscation" are different, and "the maximum Bit balance available for the U.S. government to use as a strategic reserve is 88,000, which is only 43% of the current government-held amount. This is because 112,000 Bit will be returned to Bitfinex." Of course, whether the U.S. government will ultimately return this Bit is still unknown. In addition, the Bit strategic reserve (Strategic Bit Reserve) signed by Trump is not the same as the Bit reserve bill (Strategic Federal Reserve) being promoted by Cynthia Lummis at the federal level. Alex Xu, a research partner at Mint Ventures, pointed out that the former can be directly controlled by the government, while the latter requires legislation through Congress; the former does not have a separate budget for Bit purchases (if more is needed, it requires Congressional approval), while the latter will provide a separate budget for Bit purchases (with a target of 1 million Bit in 5 years). Therefore, "David Sacks' statement that 'the government will not acquire other assets for reserve assets' does not mean that the Bit strategic reserve that the public has in mind has suddenly become something that relies solely on confiscation, not buying Bit with money."
Summary
In the author's view, the symbolic significance of the U.S. establishing a Bit strategic reserve far exceeds the actual effect of the short-term policy implementation. In the short term, the market's negative reaction to the less-than-expected policy details is normal. In the long run, this step is still an important signal of the changing global financial landscape. Perhaps this is not an immediate positive that can turn around the current market situation, but undoubtedly, this will be a decision that will be recorded in history.
At the same time, the market's attention has focused on the White House Crypto Summit to be held in the early morning of March 8. According to Fox reporter Eleanor Terrettrevealed, the confirmed attendees include Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Winklevoss brothers, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Multicoin managing partner Kyle Samani, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey, and Trump will also deliver a speech.
Between policy implementation, market response, and the upcoming summit, U.S. cryptocurrency policy is at a new turning point. Whether Saturday's roundtable forum can bring more signals to the market or provide more substantive progress for the implementation of Bitcoin strategic reserves will undoubtedly become a focus of the future development of the market and the industry.
