The White House is preparing for a significant announcement regarding the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, with Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, Patrick Witt, indicating that the administration has successfully navigated a crucial legal hurdle. Witt described this step as a breakthrough in ensuring that the reserve is legally sound and that the assets are securely safeguarded. “We’ll have an announcement,” he stated, expressing a desire to divulge more details.
Witt had previously hinted at this upcoming update during his address at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, where he emphasized that an announcement would be forthcoming within weeks. The foundation for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was laid by an executive order signed by President Trump on March 6, 2025. Since then, Witt’s deputy, Harry John, has spearheaded an interagency process focusing on the legal frameworks needed, compiling necessary legal memos, and establishing a custody and reporting system tailored to manage digital currencies rather than traditional assets like gold.
Currently, the reserve is estimated to contain around 328,372 BTC, which represents approximately 1.6% of the total global Bitcoin supply. These holdings have been amassed primarily through law enforcement actions, including significant operations such as the Silk Road takedown and the recovery of assets from the 2022 Bitfinex hack along with years of criminal forfeitures. Notably, an executive order has prohibited the Treasury from selling any of the coins in the reserve.
The urgency surrounding the reserve’s security has been underscored by a recent breach at the U.S. Marshals Service, where a contractor allegedly stole more than $46 million in cryptocurrency from custody accounts. This incident, which led to the arrest of John Daghita in March 2026, highlighted the necessity of robust security measures for the reserve.
Witt pointed out that the executive order establishing the reserve has a vulnerability; it will cease to exist when a new president takes office. This precariousness has spurred the introduction of two bills in Congress aimed at enhancing the reserves’ legal grounding. One of these bills, recently rebranded by Rep. Nick Begich from the BITCOIN Act to the American Reserves Modernization Act (ARMA), proposes that the U.S. Treasury be authorized to purchase up to 200,000 BTC annually for five years, with the requirement that these holdings remain locked for at least two decades.
Senator Cynthia Lummis is advocating for a timely vote on the legislation, aiming for a decision before the summer recess, as the midterm campaigning season approaches. If the ARMA passes, the Treasury’s inaugural open-market Bitcoin purchase is anticipated to occur in the fourth quarter of 2026. This would position the United States as the first sovereign nation to strategically accumulate Bitcoin as a reserve asset, further solidifying its position within the global cryptocurrency landscape.
