The White House has announced that, rather than immediately purchasing additional Bitcoin for strategic reserves, the U.S. government will prioritize determining the exact amount it currently holds and establishing a secure custody and management framework.
The White House said its policy priority is to accurately identify the Bitcoin currently held by the government and establish a secure system for storing and managing it, instead of immediately expanding its strategic Bitcoin reserves. Patrick Witt, secretary general of the White House Crypto Council, said on the 14th local time that no specific execution plan, policy change or timeline had yet been decided regarding additional government purchases of Bitcoin.
The U.S. government is currently estimated to hold approximately 319,000 to 328,000 Bitcoin. Valued at around $82,000 per Bitcoin, this represents a large-scale asset worth approximately $26 billion (about 35 trillion won). The U.S. government introduced a strategic Bitcoin reserve system through an executive order in March 2025. However, the move is understood to mean that, before making additional market purchases, the government intends to first establish integrated governance capable of systematically controlling criminally confiscated assets and funds transferred to the Treasury that had been held separately by individual judicial and administrative agencies.
Against the backdrop of this policy direction, approximately $1 billion worth of Bitcoin recently moved from wallets linked to the U.S. government to external addresses. A substantial portion of the funds was identified as having been transferred to addresses linked to Coinbase Prime, an institutional custody platform. Market participants have interpreted the transfers not as an attempt by authorities to sell into the market, but as internal transfers aimed at consolidating dispersed assets and improving the national custody infrastructure. However, the specific purpose of the transfers has not been officially confirmed. As the government makes the improvement of its custody system the top priority, it is expected to take some time to establish a detailed implementation roadmap for the strategic reserve.