In a recent interview, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that the US won’t buy any Bitcoin for its Strategic Reserve. Instead, the federal government plans to fill it solely using assets from legal seizures.
Bessent suggested that this reserve could contain between $15 and $20 billion, but that’s an oversimplification. Bitfinex repayments alone would reduce it to $12.5 billion, and further complications may arise.
The US Bitcoin Reserve Paradox
Over the last few months, talk of a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve has captivated US crypto policy circles, but there hasn’t been a lot of concrete progress. Individual states have pushed for local initiatives, but federal plans seem somewhat frozen.
Today, however, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an interview describing the vision:
“We’ve also started, to get into the 21st century, a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. We’re not gonna be buying that, but we are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up. I believe that a Bitcoin Reserve, at today’s prices, is somewhere between $15 and $20 billion,” Bessent claimed.
This is a bold plan, but it might be slightly garbled. On-chain data from Arkham clearly shows that US government wallets contain $23.6 billion in bitcoin, but this isn’t all eligible for a Strategic Reserve.
Last month, a scandal broke out as it was revealed that the government might only own 15% of custodied tokens. This caused fears of a secret sale.
Asset Forfeiture Explained
Despite the rumors, there was no sale, but this fact may complicate US Bitcoin Reserve plans.
Essentially, law enforcement seizes a lot of assets temporarily. That doesn’t make them government property, regardless of blockchain data.
The US custodies around $11.1 billion in BTC from the Bitfinex hack, but it’s going to repay that to creditors until mid-2026. That still leaves over $12.5 billion for a reserve plan, which is good, but significantly less than Bessent’s optimistic vision.
Moreover, the federal government might need to return even more assets using similar mechanisms.
Some federal agencies, like CBP, are intensifying their efforts to exercise civil forfeiture over seized tokens, but it’s a piecemeal process.
As agencies use this bureaucratic mechanism, these assets will become government property, legally eligible to fit in a US Bitcoin Reserve.
Bessent’s comments suggest that this problem isn’t fully understood, however. There’s currently no evidence of a coordinated plan like that, and we don’t know how much BTC might get returned to creditors.
If the Treasury wants to exclusively use seized assets, every relevant agency will need to implement civil forfeiture on a large scale. This will also have its own problems, especially if legal owners contest the process.
However, those are the US’ options: buy Bitcoin, increase asset forfeiture, or operate a tiny Strategic Reserve.
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