David Okoya
3 min read
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Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) is the latest to weigh in on budget-neutral strategies the U.S. could use to build its Bitcoin reserve.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March for the Commerce and Treasury secretaries to develop “budget-neutral” strategies to build the U.S.’s strategic Bitcoin reserve. The big question following this executive order has been what these budget-neutral strategies would look like in practice.
Lummis told Bloomberg Television last week that there are indeed pathways to build the U.S. strategic reserve now within the confines of Trump’s executive order.
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According to Lummis, one budget-neutral way the U.S. can start building its Bitcoin reserve now is by using digital assets currently held by the U.S. Marshals Service from asset forfeitures.
Beyond digital assets, Lummis said other forfeited assets held by the Marshals Service could also be converted to Bitcoin to add to the U.S.’s reserve.
“We can add other currently held assets, assets held in a different form, convert them to Bitcoin and hold them,” she said.
Just how much the Marshals Service currently holds in seized assets, digital and otherwise, however, is unclear. Its last audit came in 2022. At the time, it was estimated that the agency held $3.4 billion worth of seized assets as of the end of fiscal 2021, with $466 million of these assets being digital assets.
U.S. agencies were supposed to release an audit of their digital asset holdings on April 5. However, the audits have yet to be released. CoinDesk reported in February that the Marshal Service could not account for the digital assets it held, citing sources familiar with the matter. These sources highlighted struggles with management and tracking.
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Regardless of how the Trump administration chooses to build the U.S.’s Bitcoin reserve, Lummis last week stressed the importance of establishing legislation around the effort.
“I think it’s important eventually to have a legislative framework for a strategic Bitcoin reserve so it can’t be undone by future presidents,” she said.
