Patrick Witt, the then executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, during SPI's Solana Summit in Washington DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. Source: Getty Images
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has the final say on the Department’s next big move, said ex-White House official Patrick Witt.
It’s Bessent who will have to pursue legal actions to acquire more Bitcoin (BTC) for the strategic reserve, Witt said.
HIVE chairman Frank Holmes says U.S. Bitcoin reserve could trigger ‘exponential’ shift (1:17)
Bessent to determine how to purchase more Bitcoin, Witt says
Witt is the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. He left the White House last month because he was a Department of Defense employee on temporary detail to the Crypto Council and, it had expired.
During his stint, he led an unsuccessful effort in Washington to pass the CLARITY Act, major legislation to regulate digital assets in the U.S.
On Nov. 9, Witt appeared on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast in which he claimed that President Donald Trump is interested in the strategic Bitcoin reserve and there has been a lot of discussion to pursue it.
For the uninitiated, Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve just like the federal gold reserve at Fort Knox.
The order mandated creating a reserve made up of Bitcoin forfeited by U.S. authorities and also urged the Treasury Department to develop “budget-neutral” strategies to acquire more BTC. Trump has touted the move as evidence of his vow to turn the U.S. into the global Bitcoin capital but there has been little progress so far.
During the podcast yesterday, Witt said that open market purchases of Bitcoin could face legal challenges because the U.S. Congress has the ultimate say on federal spending.
U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent speaks during a press briefing at White House in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2026.
Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Images)
There are several ways to acquire more Bitcoin, such as repricing federal gold holdings to free up funds for crypto purchases, converting other federal digital assets into BTC, etc. But all of them need to be legally compliant and it’s up to Bessent on how the Treasury wants to take legal actions to acquire more Bitcoin for the balance sheet, Witt claimed.
Though the Secretary has a lot of priorities, he is trying to manage through it all as the Bitcoin reserve is an ongoing effort, he said. The Treasury Department also needs to build a robust custody infrastructure before it even thinks of buying more Bitcoin, he added.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:
Mysterious trader buys millions ahead of Nov. 10 inflation report
Ripple veteran says he threw IRS letter in trash
Binance hackers turn to Elon Musk memecoins to hide $6.3 billion
Treasury proceeding with ‘deliberate speed,’ Bessent told lawmakers
During a Senate Finance Committee testimony in June, Bessent said the Treasury Department is proceeding with a “deliberate speed” as far as a strategic Bitcoin reserve is concerned.
Bitcoin is a “new technology” and setting up its reserve is a complicated process, he admitted. But the goal is to use best practices that will be durable for the future, he told the lawmakers back then.
The Roundtable 100
If you follow our market coverage, don’t miss the Roundtable 100. Updated every Friday, it’s a power ranking of the 100 most investable tech stocks, including digital assets. Check out the latest RTB 100 rankings at roundtable100.com.
Related: U.S. Treasury, Fed scrap $250 transaction reporting proposal