The United States holds an estimated 328,372 BTC — approximately $25.4 billion at current prices — making it the largest known sovereign Bitcoin holder on Earth. Fourteen months after Executive Order 14233 established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 6, 2025, the reserve remains in administ...
"We've heard stories and confirmed some of them of cold wallets that were being stored in drawers of desks in various agencies." — Patrick Witt, Executive Director, President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets
The United States holds an estimated 328,372 BTC — approximately $25.4 billion at current prices — making it the largest known sovereign Bitcoin holder on Earth. Fourteen months after Executive Order 14233 established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 6, 2025, the reserve remains in administrative limbo: agency audits are overdue, custody infrastructure is fragmented, and a $46 million insider theft has exposed systemic vulnerabilities. On May 21, 2026, Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) in the House, the third legislative vehicle — alongside the Senate's BITCOIN Act (S.954) — seeking to codify the reserve into permanent law.
The operational gap between executive ambition and institutional readiness is the central risk. The Department of Justice still tracks seized crypto on supplemental Excel spreadsheets, according to the Washington Monthly. A contractor's son allegedly stole $46 million from U.S. Marshals Service wallets before being arrested in Saint Martin. The gold-certificate revaluation mechanism that would fund open-market purchases of up to 1 million BTC over five years has not advanced past the draft-bill stage. Meanwhile, three U.S. states — New Hampshire, Arizona, and Texas — have moved faster than the federal government, enacting their own reserve frameworks.
On March 6, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14233, directing the Treasury Department to establish the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order contained three core mandates: (1) all forfeited BTC held by federal agencies would be transferred to a centralized reserve administered by Treasury; (2) agencies would complete a full accounting of digital asset holdings within 30 days; (3) the Treasury Secretary would evaluate legal and investment considerations and propose legislation within 60 days.
Both deadlines passed without public disclosure. No agency has confirmed completing its audit. No legislative proposal emerged from Treasury within the 60-day window. Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, acknowledged at Consensus Miami 2026 on May 6 that the administration had reached a "breakthrough" on legal compliance and custody structure — more than a year after the order was signed.
Witt stated that an announcement on the reserve would come "in the next few weeks," placing the likely timeline in late May or early June 2026. The delay reflects the complexity of consolidating crypto assets spread across the DOJ, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service — agencies with no standardized digital-asset management protocols.
The federal government's Bitcoin holdings derive almost entirely from criminal forfeitures and law enforcement seizures, not open-market purchases. Three major sources account for the bulk:
| Source | Estimated BTC | Year Seized | |--------|--------------|-------------| | Silk Road marketplace takedowns | ~69,370 BTC | 2013-2022 | | Bitfinex hack recovery | ~94,636 BTC | 2022 | | Other criminal forfeitures | ~164,366 BTC | Various | | Total (est.) | ~328,372 BTC | |
At Bitcoin's price of approximately $77,850 on May 21, 2026, these holdings are valued at roughly $25.6 billion. Prior to the executive order, the standard practice was to auction seized crypto through the U.S. Marshals Service shortly after forfeiture. EO 14233 reversed this policy, directing that forfeited BTC be retained.
The inventory problem is not merely administrative. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has mapped known government wallet addresses, but discrepancies exist between on-chain data and agency records. The DOJ's Consolidated Asset Tracking System (CATS) — the primary database for seized assets — lacks functionality for cryptocurrency management. According to a February 2026 Washington Monthly investigation, the Marshals Service supplements CATS with Excel spreadsheets that "could be edited or deleted without a record."
The fragility of federal crypto custody was demonstrated in a case that began surfacing in January 2026. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT alleged on January 25, 2026, that over $40 million in cryptocurrency had been stolen from government-controlled wallets. The investigation centered on Command Services & Support (CMDSS), a Virginia-based technology firm holding two contracts totaling $7.8 million (2024-2026) to manage and dispose of seized crypto for the Marshals Service.
On March 5, 2026, the FBI arrested John "Lick" Daghita — the 21-year-old son of CMDSS president Dean Daghita — in Saint Martin during a joint operation with French authorities. According to court filings and CoinDesk reporting, the suspect allegedly gained unauthorized access to wallets holding government-seized digital assets. Authorities found a briefcase full of cash and multiple USB drives at the time of arrest. The confirmed theft was later revised upward to $46 million.
The case exposed multiple failures: inadequate contractor vetting, insufficient access controls on custody wallets, and the absence of real-time monitoring for government-held crypto. Witt's comment about cold wallets stored in desk drawers at various agencies underscored that these were not isolated incidents but systemic deficiencies.
Two parallel legislative efforts are competing to codify the reserve:
The BITCOIN Act of 2025 (S.954) — Introduced March 11, 2025, by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). Co-sponsors include Sens. Jim Justice (R-WV), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Bernie Moreno (R-OH). The bill directs Treasury to purchase 200,000 BTC annually over five years, targeting 1 million BTC total — approximately 5% of Bitcoin's fixed 21-million-coin supply. All acquired BTC must be held for a minimum of 20 years, after which a percentage may be sold exclusively to reduce the national debt. The bill remains in early-stage committee review and has not received a Senate vote.
The American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) — Introduced May 21, 2026, by Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) in the House. ARMA is a rebranding and refinement of an earlier House companion to the BITCOIN Act, redesigned after discussions with the House Financial Services Committee to broaden bipartisan support. The bill has garnered more than a dozen co-sponsors. It tasks Treasury with overseeing the Bitcoin reserve and creates a separate digital asset stockpile for non-BTC cryptocurrencies held by the government.
Neither bill has reached a floor vote. The CLARITY Act — a separate digital-asset market-structure bill — cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026, and is absorbing significant legislative bandwidth. Crypto policy staffers in both chambers have indicated that the BITCOIN Act and ARMA may need to be attached as riders or reconciled into a single vehicle to advance.
The most technically complex element of both bills is the proposed funding source: revaluing the Federal Reserve's gold certificates.
The U.S. Treasury holds 261.5 million troy ounces of gold, currently valued on its books at $42.22 per ounce — a price frozen since the Nixon administration abandoned gold convertibility in 1973. At today's market price of approximately $3,300 per ounce, the unrealized gain on those certificates exceeds $850 billion.
Under the proposed mechanism:
At $77,850 per BTC, purchasing 200,000 coins per year would cost approximately $15.6 billion annually, or $78 billion over the full five-year program. The gold-certificate revaluation would more than cover this cost without requiring new appropriations or tax revenue — a "budget-neutral" framing that proponents argue sidesteps fiscal objections.
Critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have questioned whether the mechanism constitutes a backdoor monetization of gold reserves and raised concerns about White House officials' personal crypto holdings. According to CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), White House officials hold up to $2.35 million in assets proposed for inclusion in the national crypto reserve.
While the federal reserve remains an executive order without statutory backing, three states have moved ahead:
New Hampshire enacted legislation authorizing the state treasurer to invest up to 5% of state funds in crypto ETFs and precious metals. In November 2025, New Hampshire became the first state to approve a $100 million Bitcoin-backed municipal bond — the first time cryptocurrency has been used as collateral for municipal debt in the United States.
Arizona — Governor Katie Hobbs signed HB 2749, creating the Arizona Bitcoin & Digital Assets Reserve. Additional bills in the 2026 legislative session (SB 1649, SB 1042, SB 1373) seek to expand the reserve using seized and confiscated crypto assets, not just unclaimed property.
Texas became the first state to purchase Bitcoin exposure directly, acquiring approximately $5 million in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on November 20, 2025, when BTC was priced at $91,336. The purchase was executed by the Comptroller's office as the initial step in a state-level strategic reserve program.
According to Bitcoin Reserve Monitor, more than 20 additional states have introduced reserve-related legislation in 2025-2026, though most remain in committee.
The U.S. is not acting in isolation. Multiple sovereign entities now hold Bitcoin as a stated policy:
| Country/Entity | Estimated BTC | Acquisition Method | |----------------|--------------|-------------------| | United States | ~328,372 | Criminal forfeitures | | Bhutan | ~12,062 | State-linked mining (hydropower) | | El Salvador | ~7,565 | Direct purchases | | Czech Republic | Considering | Central bank allocation (up to 5% of €140B reserves) |
El Salvador has accumulated 7,565 BTC since 2021 through deliberate purchasing. Bhutan's holdings — approximately 12,062 BTC as of June 2025 — stem from state-linked mining operations powered by the country's abundant hydropower capacity. The Czech National Bank became Europe's first central bank to publicly discuss Bitcoin as a reserve asset, considering an allocation of up to 5% of its €140 billion reserves.
Additional countries — including Russia, Poland, Japan, Venezuela, and South Africa — were evaluating Bitcoin's role in national reserves as of 2025, though none had formalized holding programs.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve exists in a constitutional gray zone: established by executive order, populated by forfeiture proceeds rather than deliberate policy, and operated on infrastructure that federal auditors have flagged as inadequate. The White House has signaled an imminent announcement — likely the operational framework for consolidating agency holdings under Treasury custody. But the harder questions remain upstream: whether Congress will authorize open-market purchases, how to fund them without new appropriations, and whether the gold-certificate mechanism can survive legal and political scrutiny.
The economic value at stake is concrete. At current prices, the government's 328,372 BTC represent 1.56% of Bitcoin's circulating supply. The proposed 1-million-BTC target would bring that share to approximately 4.76% — a concentration of ownership with no parallel in the traditional reserve-asset landscape. Whether this concentration constitutes prudent fiscal management or speculative overreach depends on Bitcoin's long-term trajectory as a store of value. The data on that question is, by definition, incomplete.