White House’s long-awaited digital assets report fails to boost bitcoin’s price

Six months after President Trump’s executive order established a working group to create a regulatory framework for crypto, the White House finally released its 166-page report on digital assets this afternoon. Despite its length, it gave very few details on the bitcoin strategic reserve, an issue most insiders are focused on.

The report also failed to boost bitcoin’s price or the overall crypto space. All assets were largely down following its release. 

The report did clarify that there will be two entities: a bitcoin reserve and a  “digital assets” stockpile, but fell short of mentioning which assets would be included in the latter.  The US government holds 198,000 bitcoin, according to Arkham Intel.

The report did answer some questions, such as which entity would take custody of the assets:

“The Reserve and the Stockpile will be administered by Treasury, which will establish an office to administer and maintain control of the associated custodial accounts.”

It explained that both entities will be funded by forfeited digital assets, yet also noted that these need to “satisfy statutory objectives,” which “will continue to be used for those objectives, including to compensate identifiable and verifiable victims of crimes, to support law enforcement operations, to be equitably shared with state and local law enforcement partners, and to fulfill other statutory forfeiture program requirements.”

Finally, the report says that bitcoin in the reserve “will generally not be sold” and that “Treasury and Commerce will develop strategies that could be used to acquire additional bitcoin,” but did not explain which “budget-neutral” tactics this would entail.

Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime, told Sherwood News that today’s report largely reiterated existing initiatives, adding that some seem disappointed about a lack of information about a bitcoin strategic reserve.

“I think the report reaffirms the administration’s prioritization of the industry and provides incremental clarity on how the branches of government can best proceed to constructive rulemaking,” he said. “This is not an earth-shattering report, but more of a standard, dull policy document. It’s the slow grind of government bureaucracy, not the bleeding edge of crypto tech.”