US Agency Turf War Stalls Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Plan
Treasury and Commerce departments are fighting over who gets to run the reserve, while the DOJ tries to sort out the legal mess.
One of the flashiest promises from Trump's pro-crypto agenda — a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — is stuck in bureaucratic limbo, and the holdup has nothing to do with Bitcoin itself. According to Bloomberg, a behind-the-scenes turf war between the Treasury and Commerce departments is holding the policy up, with neither agency able to agree on who has the legal authority to actually run the thing.
Here's the background: Trump ordered the reserve's creation last year, envisioning it as a Treasury-managed stockpile funded by Bitcoin the federal government already seized through asset forfeiture. Sounds straightforward, right? Not quite. Legal concerns bubbled up over whether Treasury can actually hold Bitcoin indefinitely — largely because of the token's wild price swings — which opened the door for Commerce to throw its hat in the ring as an alternative home for the reserve. Now the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is playing referee, working with both departments to figure out a structure that would actually hold up legally.
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What makes this whole situation a little ironic is that Bitcoin didn't seem to care much on Monday, posting gains even as the uncertainty swirled. Traders also shrugged off a high-profile sell-off: Michael Saylor's firm Strategy unloaded 3,588 Bitcoin between June 29 and July 5, the kind of move that would typically spook the market. The resilience suggests crypto investors are treating the reserve debate as a long-term structural story rather than something that needs to be resolved tomorrow.
Still, the stakes are real. The U.S. government currently holds more than $20 billion worth of Bitcoin spread across various federal agencies, making Washington one of the largest Bitcoin holders on the planet. How and where that stash eventually gets managed — and whether it grows through future purchases — could meaningfully affect supply dynamics down the road. For now, though, Bitcoin sits nearly 50% below its October all-time high, and the reserve remains more idea than reality.
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