White House crypto czar David Sacks made the announcement late on Thursday, March 6, stating, “Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”

He added that the reserve would be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government, which was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

The US government holds around 200,000 BTC, according to estimates and the executive order “directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings,” said Sacks.

“The US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency, often called ‘digital gold’.”

Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it…

No Buying More Crypto

Sacks also said that premature sales of BTC “have already cost US taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value” before adding, “Now the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings.”

The EO also establishes a US digital asset stockpile consisting of crypto other than Bitcoin forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings. However, the government “will not acquire additional assets for the stockpile” beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings, he said.

This means that it will not be buying Ethereum, XRP, Solana, or Cardano, as Trump mentioned earlier this week.

The concept was ridiculed by several industry executives and analysts after it was proposed by Trump on March 2 because he mentioned a handful of altcoins that many prominent Bitcoiners labeled as “shitcoins.”

“President Trump promised to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. Those promises have been kept,” Sacks concluded.

Crypto Market Tanks

It appears that the crypto market is also deriding the notion that Uncle Sam will be stockpiling digital assets as it has tanked by more than $200 billion, or 5%, since the announcement, despite analysts calling it bullish. As a result, total capitalization is now back below $3 trillion.

Bitcoin dumped $5,000 in an hour or so, crashing from around $90,000 to $85,000 before it recovered to around $87,000, while Ethereum fell a similar 5% to $2,150 after the announcement.

Unsurprisingly, XRP, SOL, and ADA were hit particularly hard, falling 8%, 7%, and 10% respectively.