Bitcoin: A High-Level Summit to Advance the U.S. Strategic Reserve

Trump and bitcoin is a mix of noise and strategy. On one hand, he hammers his ambition to place the United States at the forefront of the Web3 revolution. On the other, he sometimes slows down, like when he excludes tapping into the federal treasury to inflate the country’s digital wallet. And, regularly, he listens closely to the crypto experts flocking to Washington to present their plans. The meeting around the BITCOIN Act illustrates this ambivalence.

Washington heats up: the BITCOIN Act at the heart of political debates

While France is already talking about blocking certain crypto companies to position itself as a regulatory model, the atmosphere is quite different across the Atlantic. On Tuesday, 18 crypto leaders gathered in Washington to defend the BITCOIN Act . This bill, supported by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich, proposes that the United States accumulate one million bitcoins in five years. The goal: to build a strategic digital reserve, similar to Fort Knox for gold.

The meeting, organized by The Digital Chamber and the Digital Power Network, brought together diverse profiles: Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy), Tom Lee (Fundstrat and BitMine), Fred Thiel (MARA), as well as players from traditional finance. Michael Saylor’s tweet summed up the atmosphere:

For now, the project has only attracted Republicans. Without Democratic support, the BITCOIN Act struggles to advance through the congressional banking committees.

Bitcoin, the digital gold America dreams of accumulating

The ambition of this project goes beyond a simple political signal. The bill wants to make bitcoin a national strategic asset, treated like gold.

This prospect excites crypto advocates. They already imagine a scenario where corporate treasuries would follow the federal government’s example, strengthening bitcoin’s legitimacy as “digital gold”. 

Charles Hoskinson (Cardano) confirmed his presence at the round table by posting a brief message on X announcing his arrival in Washington. But some warn: a state accumulating such quantities could disrupt bitcoin’s decentralized nature.

The budget puzzle: one million BTC without additional tax

The heart of the debate lies in financing. The BITCOIN Act requires that the purchase of one million BTC be achieved through so-called “budget-neutral” strategies. No increasing taxes or adding to public debt. Several avenues are on the table.

The numbers behind the project

• 1 million BTC to acquire in five years;
• 0 dollars additional tax: “budget-neutral” strategy;
• 18 crypto leaders present at the Washington roundtable;
• 2 key committees to convince: House Financial Services and Senate Banking.

Among the solutions considered: reevaluation of Treasury gold certificates, rerouting customs surpluses, integrating seized bitcoins in criminal cases. 

The United States has the capacity to buy as many bitcoins as it wants. But political will remains decisive. Recently, Scott Bessent cooled bitcoiners’ ardor by stating that the government will not buy back BTC , ending, at least for now, dreams of a digital federal reserve backed by bitcoin.