Funding Bitcoin: Budget-neutral strategies for US to acquire BTC

US President Donald Trump’s enforcement bid establishing a strategical Bitcoin (BTC) reserve called for a budget-neutral strategy to get much coins, which includes adding much BTC done plus forfeitures and perchance converting different reserve assets to the cryptocurrency.

The US authorities maintains strategical reserves covering a scope of assets and commodities, including gold, petroleum, earthy gas, overseas currency, medicine, land, captious rare-earth minerals and adjacent cheese.

The astir liquid of these strategical reserve assets are petroleum, golden and overseas currency.

According to the US Department of Energy, the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has astir 395 cardinal barrels of crude lipid arsenic of Feb. 28, with a full holding capableness of implicit 713 cardinal barrels.

A ocular illustration of the brackish caverns that location the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Source: US Department of Energy

Assuming a price of $67 per tube of West Texas Crude Oil, this gives the US petroleum reserve a worth of implicit $26.4 billion.

Data from the US Treasury shows that the section presently holds implicit 258.6 cardinal troy ounces of gold, valued astatine implicit $10.9 cardinal arsenic of Feb. 28.

The Treasury Department’s convertible overseas currency reserves, arsenic of Jan. 31, full implicit $35 billion. Sygnum Bank estimates that the US Bitcoin reserve could grow BTC’s marketplace capitalization by astir 25%, oregon astir $460 billion.

US Treasury convertible overseas reserves. Source: US Treasury

Related: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says US should bring BTC onshore

Senator Cynthia Lummis calls for converting golden reserves to Bitcoin

In July 2024, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the Bitcoin Act to the US Senate, outlining a program for the US authorities to get 5% of Bitcoin's full proviso — 1 cardinal BTC.

The measure besides projected the US authorities clasp Bitcoin for 20 years arsenic a hedge against inflation.

In November 2024, Senator Lummis suggested converting immoderate US golden reserves to Bitcoin arsenic a budget-neutral mode to acquisition the 1 cardinal BTC, which would person outgo astir $90 cardinal astatine the time.

BTC is the US government’s largest integer plus held by a dollar magnitude astatine astir $17.4 billion. Source: Arkham Intelligence

Lummis had antecedently argued that the US Treasury should person immoderate of its assets to acquisition BTC but did not specify which assets should beryllium converted.

White House advisor David Sacks besides called Bitcoin integer golden and the recently established Bitcoin strategical reserve “a integer Fort Knox” for the supply-capped, decentralized cryptocurrency.

Sacks added that the scarce quality of BTC sets it isolated from different cryptocurrencies arsenic a unsocial store of value.

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