Does the US government own bitcoin? The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Yes, the US government owns bitcoin, and since March 2025 it has a formal plan for keeping it. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve holds bitcoin the government obtained through forfeiture, rather than coins it bought. A separate US Digital Asset Stockpile holds other forfeited crypto. For background on the asset, see what is bitcoin.

What did the executive order on a bitcoin reserve do?

President Trump signed Executive Order 14233 on March 6, 2025. It told the Treasury to set up an office to manage two sets of custodial accounts, one for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and one for the Digital Asset Stockpile. The reserve is funded with bitcoin from final criminal or civil forfeitures and from civil money penalties.

The White House said bitcoin placed in the reserve will not be sold and will be kept as a reserve asset. The Treasury and Commerce secretaries may develop budget-neutral ways to acquire more bitcoin, as long as they add no cost for taxpayers. For other forfeited assets in the stockpile, the government will not buy more, and the Treasury may decide how to manage them, including possible sales.

Agencies had 30 days to give a full accounting of their digital asset holdings, and the Treasury had 60 days to evaluate legal and investment issues.

How much crypto does the US government own?

Nobody outside government has an audited figure. As of July 2026, The Block reported that blockchain-tracking estimates ranged from about 200,000 to about 328,000 BTC. Part of the gap comes from the difference between seized coins, which may still be tied up in court, and forfeited coins, which legally belong to the government.

The White House also argued that earlier sales of seized bitcoin had cost taxpayers more than $17 billion in missed value.

Where does the government's bitcoin come from?

Almost all of it comes from law enforcement. Major sources include bitcoin tied to the Silk Road darknet market and coins recovered from the Bitfinex exchange hack, with 94,636 BTC seized in 2022. In October 2025, the Justice Department filed to forfeit about 127,271 BTC, worth more than $14 billion at the time, linked to Chen Zhi and the Prince Group, an alleged scam network. It called this the largest crypto forfeiture in its history. Our guides on whether crypto can be traced and pig butchering explain how such cases come about.

Will the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve become law?

Not yet. For now the reserve rests on an executive order rather than a law passed by Congress. On September 16, 2026, the House Financial Services Committee advanced the American Reserve Modernization Act, which grew out of the earlier BITCOIN Act. It would make the reserve permanent, require secure storage and call for buying more bitcoin over five years through budget-neutral methods. A similar bill had not passed the Senate as of that date. See who regulates crypto in the US for the wider policy picture.