Author | Alex Xu

Just tweeted by crypto and AI czar David Sacks, stating that Trump signed an executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the main content is:

1. The reserve is based on the existing BTC controlled by the federal government, and any subsequently confiscated BTC will also enter this reserve.

2. These BTC will not be sold (at least during Trump's term).

3. The government will not create a separate budget (meaning 'budget-neutral' as stated in the original text) to purchase BTC.

4. Trump has fulfilled his promise.

Tweet link:

How to understand the above news? I believe there are mainly the following points:

1. This 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' is not the same as the 'Strategic Federal Reserve' bill promoted by Senator Cythia Lummis at the federal level. The former can be directly controlled by the government, while the latter requires Congressional legislation; the former does not have a separate budget for purchasing BTC (any increase requires Congressional approval), while the latter will provide a separate budget for purchasing BTC, with the goal of buying 1 million BTC over 5 years. The source of the budget may come from re-evaluating the value of the existing U.S. gold reserves, thereby expanding the Federal Reserve's asset count to provide a budget for the Treasury to purchase BTC. What David Sacks said about 'the government will not acquire other assets for reserve asset acquisition' does not mean that the public's impression of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has suddenly turned into something that only relies on confiscation and does not spend separately to buy BTC.

2. Does the above executive order indicate that Trump has fulfilled his 'promise'? At the executive level, yes. Because what Trump can do at the executive level is limited, he has essentially done what he said during the campaign: establishing a BTC strategic reserve (at the executive level), forming a dedicated crypto advisory committee, firing/forcing out former SEC chairman Gensler, and relaxing industry regulations. However, at the overall level, the promise has not been fully fulfilled; Trump clearly stated during the campaign that he would also build a federal strategic reserve to purchase more BTC, which is also part of the bill that Senator Cythia Lummis is promoting in Congress.

3. Will Trump announce more favorable news regarding BTC reserves or others? It's possible. He is the main speaker at the White House Crypto Summit held tomorrow morning Beijing time. But as mentioned earlier, he has limited options regarding BTC at the executive level. The most extreme measure would be to order the Treasury to directly use the Exchange Stabilization Fund to purchase BTC; this fund already exists and does not require separate Congressional approval, and its operational goal is to 'stabilize the USD exchange rate.' However, as I previously discussed in my brief analysis on Trump's promotion of SOL XRP ADA national reserves, Trump's style is to leverage small moves for big news. He prefers low-cost, small maneuvers rather than investing substantial effort in high-risk actions with low returns. Although using the Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy BTC theoretically falls within his executive powers, such a concrete action would be too extreme, leading to many subsequent troubles and potentially interfering with Senator Cythia Lummis's efforts to promote the bill in Congress (the two actions would overlap).

4. We need to note that Trump's current 'crazy persona' is more pronounced, acting recklessly to make foreign adversaries see him as a madman who dares to do anything, thus gaining political advantages through coercion; internally, he is constantly testing through various executive actions to expand the boundaries of presidential power, including but not limited to massive layoffs and forced shutdowns of government employees via DOGE, and withholding government budgets approved by Congress. He is actively practicing the 'one-man presidential route,' supported by his cabinet, and the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last July that the president enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution when exercising executive power also gives him greater confidence. Therefore, it is also possible that Trump, facing a significant backlash from crypto public opinion, might make more exaggerated favorable promises later, but their feasibility remains questionable.

5. Although the trend of Bitcoin entering national finances has encountered obstacles, it is still advancing slowly. The key focus remains the advancement of the formal Federal Reserve bill and the promotion of Bitcoin reserve bills in various states.