White House Crypto Adviser Hints at ‘Breakthrough’ Bitcoin Reserve Move

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In brief - The Trump administration has been “figuring out” how to push forward the strategic Bitcoin reserve, Patrick Witt said Monday. - The U.S. Treasury had ruled out any new Bitcoin purchases since August last year, and has not reversed its position since. - Senator Cynthia Lummis’ BITCOIN Act will reportedly be reworked under a new name in the coming weeks. Over a year since President Donald Trump's executive order created the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve, a key White House figure has hinted at the reserve's operational and legal framework, even as the Treasury continues to rule out new Bitcoin purchases. Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, told a panel at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas on Monday that the administration has spent months “figuring out” the legal interpretations needed to protect Bitcoin that would end up on the government balance sheet. A "big announcement" is expected within weeks, Witt said, describing it as a "breakthrough" that the executive branch can deliver before Congress acts on legislation. It’s worth noting that the annual conference is also where President Trump first pledged a strategic Bitcoin stockpile back in 2024. Months later, his administration told a closed-door industry roundtable it wanted to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible, a position the Treasury has since walked back. But the gap between executive ambition and what Treasury and Congress have actually delivered on now hangs over Witt's latest remarks. In late July last year, the White House's own 168-page crypto policy report made no mention of an acquisition plan. Weeks later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government would not be purchasing additional Bitcoin, limiting reserve growth to assets obtained through law enforcement seizures. Secretary Bessent has not publicly reversed that position since, and those actions have left new purchases up to Congress. On the same Monday panel at the conference, Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) said his House companion to Senator Cynthia Lummis’ BITCOIN Act will be reintroduced in the coming weeks under a new name, as the “American Reserves Modernization Act,” following discussions with the House Financial Services Committee aimed at broadening support among lawmakers. Begich said Congress should "lock in the gains" of the current administration's pro-Bitcoin stance before another administration can revisit the policy. Challenges lie ahead In any case, what the White House can actually do could be narrower than what Witt suggests. While President Trump’s executive order to establish the reserve the crypto stockpile “successfully consolidated” Bitcoin from criminal forfeitures, “the executive branch lacks the authority to buy Bitcoin on the open market without congressional appropriation,” Matthew Pinnock, chief operating officer at Altura DeFi, told Decrypt. The same constraint shapes what Witt's announcement can actually contain, Pinnock explained, adding that the US president cannot authorize new Bitcoin acquisitions, build independent custody infrastructure, or bind the next administration, because "any new spending requires congressional appropriation, and executive orders carry no legislative weight." The next administration, he added, "can reverse them on day one with a stroke of a pen." Pinnock said Bessent's reversal on budget-neutral purchases has made the Senate Banking Committee markup harder than it needed to be, removing what he called "the bill's most defensible argument to skeptical members." Announcements made on the crypto conference circuit, ostensibly made to “enhance” a partisan line, have had "almost no meaningful impact" on the reserve, he opined.

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