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The online instance of the article was paywalled so here is an ICR extract of the text.

A Federal Bitcoin Stockpile? Trump Likes the Idea.

By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY

A pair of 50-page policy proposals lays out the plan in detail. Discussions about the specifics have taken place with President-elect Donald J. Trump and his advisers, and there have been talks with cabinet nominees about how to pay for it.

On the eve of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the cryptocurrency industry is pushing his incoming administration to create an audacious plan that would have seemed unimaginable just a year ago—a government program to buy and hold billions of dollars in Bitcoin.

As he campaigned last summer, Mr. Trump vowed to create a federal Bitcoin stockpile that would serve as a “permanent national asset” to benefit all Americans. Bitcoin enthusiasts hailed the idea as potentially transformative, claiming it could help reduce the national debt. Mr. Trump could still abandon the plan, and its details are under debate. But industry executives have spent weeks lobbying to shape the proposal, raising hopes that Mr. Trump might act soon after taking office.

In recent days, crypto experts have offered input to David Sacks, a venture capitalist whom Mr. Trump appointed to oversee crypto and artificial intelligence policy, on a possible executive order addressing several areas of cryptocurrency, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The Bitcoin stockpile is part of those discussions, two of them said.

“This could be the day it all matures,” said Pete Rize, an editor at Bitcoin Magazine, an industry publication. “It’s certainly an idea that has come a long way in a short time.”

By some estimates, the United States owns as much as $19 billion in Bitcoin that it has seized from criminals over time—a stash the government has recently moved to sell. Some crypto executives are calling on Mr. Trump to simply hold on to that Bitcoin, which he could most likely do with an executive order. Others are pushing a more ambitious plan in which the government would acquire tens of billions of dollars in new Bitcoin, building a “strategic reserve” they argue could benefit taxpayers in the long run.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2025 | B1

nosnostr 11mo ago

Most likely, they will create a crypto reserve to favor some friend, a reserve of monkey nft and various shitcoins. Bitcoin is not available to be used as a reserve because most of it is in the hands of holders. You'd have to sell a lot of ETFs to be able to use an executive order and confiscate them... I think that's unlikely!

WildBill 11mo ago

Usually is all lies! That’s nice to see!

Fabrizio 11mo ago

I wish it was just #Bitcoin, but it will include some Shitcoins, at the end of the term the superiority of #Bitcoin will be seen

Bellator Vult 11mo ago

I admit, Trump is a consistent politician with what he promised during the campaign, and that's not something you see every day.

There are billions in #bitcoin seized, 'supposedly illegal', and supposedly, they will be added to this fund? What are the criteria for something to be considered illegal and added to this fund?

Will an illegal immigrant have their cryptos seized?

And another thing, what will be the criteria for this fund, its manager, its policies, and its market impact? From an invisible hand in the market, will we move to a clenched fist?

But I admit, I hope for fair winds from the storm ahead, it's just a matter of knowing how to navigate these waters.