Bitget CEO Gracy Chen says the U.S. government is unlikely to make direct Bitcoin purchases for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve during President Donald Trump’s current term, despite the administration’s pro-crypto stance.

Bitget CEO Sees Low Chance of Direct Bitcoin Purchases

Chen said the structure of the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve makes large government purchases unlikely before Trump leaves office. The reserve was established through an executive order signed on March 6, 2025, and was initially capitalized with Bitcoin forfeited through criminal and civil cases. The same order also created a separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile for other forfeited digital assets.

The executive order does not create a taxpayer-funded Bitcoin buying program. Instead, it authorizes the Treasury and Commerce departments to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional BTC, provided those methods impose no extra costs on taxpayers. White House digital assets adviser Bo Hines has publicly cited ideas such as revaluing the Treasury’s gold certificates as one possible budget-neutral approach, though no acquisition program has been announced.

That distinction reduces expectations that the Treasury will become a regular buyer in the open market. While the government can explore ways to add Bitcoin, any acquisition must comply with the budget-neutral requirement unless policymakers establish another funding mechanism.

The reserve currently holds Bitcoin already controlled by the federal government. Public estimates have placed those holdings at nearly 200,000 BTC, although the government has not released a single real-time figure covering every federal wallet. Blockchain analytics firms that track labeled government wallets describe the stockpile as the largest held by any sovereign state.

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Focuses on Holding Seized BTC

The executive order changed how the federal government handles forfeited Bitcoin by directing that BTC transferred into the reserve should not be sold. Previously, U.S. authorities periodically auctioned cryptocurrency recovered through enforcement actions, including coins tied to the Silk Road darknet marketplace that the U.S. Marshals Service sold at public auction.

That structure makes the reserve primarily a long-term holding vehicle rather than a conventional sovereign purchasing program. New Bitcoin obtained through qualifying forfeitures can also be added to federal holdings. The design parallels how the Treasury has long treated its gold reserve — roughly 8,133 metric tons carried on the books at a statutory price set decades ago — as a stored asset rather than a trading position.

Chen’s assessment centers on the gap between creating a national Bitcoin reserve and actively buying BTC. She said the current framework does not provide the direct funding needed for regular government purchases.

However, the executive order leaves open the possibility of additional Bitcoin acquisitions through budget-neutral strategies. That means purchases are not legally ruled out, even if Chen considers them unlikely under the current administration.

Bitcoin Reserve Removes a Source of Potential Selling Pressure

The reserve also changes one potential source of Bitcoin supply. By holding forfeited BTC instead of selling it, the federal government removes the possibility of routine liquidation of reserve assets.

That approach differs from active sovereign Bitcoin accumulation. Countries such as El Salvador have made direct Bitcoin purchases under the legal tender law adopted in 2021, while Bhutan has accumulated holdings partly through state-linked mining operations.

For the United States, the next step depends on whether officials develop a workable budget-neutral acquisition strategy or Congress creates another legal route for purchases. The most prominent legislative proposal to date, Senator Cynthia Lummis’s BITCOIN Act, would authorize cumulative government purchases of 1 million BTC, but it has not become law.

Until then, Chen expects the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to remain focused mainly on retaining Bitcoin the government already controls rather than becoming an active buyer in the market.