Bitcoin declines following Trump's executive order to establish a Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve in the U.S

President Donald Trump publicly announced, early Friday morning, the executive order to establish a Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve and a Digital Assets Reserve. The announcement, made just a day before the cryptocurrency summit at the White House, ends days of anticipation following his Sunday preview of creating a strategic reserve that would include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and others.

The document released on Friday states that it is U.S. policy to establish reserves as secure accounts for the organized and strategic management of the country’s other digital asset holdings. The Treasury Secretary is tasked with establishing an office to oversee them. It also sets a 60-day deadline for the Treasury Secretary to provide an assessment of the legal and investment considerations for managing both digital currency reserves, “including the accounts where they should be held and the need for any legislation to operationalize any aspect of this order or the proper management and administration of those accounts.”

Minutes after signing the executive order, David Sacks, the White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, explained on his X account that the reserve "will be capitalized with bitcoins owned by the federal government that have been confiscated as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture procedures." Sacks emphasized that this measure “will not cost taxpayers a penny” and added that the U.S. "will not sell any bitcoin deposited in the reserve," but will instead "maintain it as a store of value."

He also ordered a complete accounting of the U.S. government’s asset holdings, which are estimated to include about 200,000 bitcoins.

Additionally, he stated that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick "are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies to acquire additional bitcoins," as long as "no additional costs to American taxpayers are incurred."