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US considers building larger crypto holdings, with Congress still a constraint
A 2025 executive order already pushes Treasury and Commerce toward budget-neutral Bitcoin acquisition strategies, but the same rules restrict additional purchases for non-Bitcoin assets to forfeiture and civil penalty pathways.
President Donald Trump said on Aug. 20 that the US is considering accumulating sizable amounts of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The core constraint is legal authority, because current law gives the administration ways to increase federal crypto holdings but does not provide Treasury a publicly approved, funded program for multibillion-dollar open-market purchases, according to CryptoSlate.
For Bitcoin, Trump’s 2025 executive order directs Treasury and Commerce to develop budget-neutral acquisition strategies. For non-Bitcoin assets, the order limits additional acquisitions to channels tied to forfeiture and civil-money-penalty pathways unless further executive or legislative action occurs.
The article says a second executive order could remove those limits for other crypto assets such as Ethereum, XRP, and Solana, but Congress would still control federal appropriations and any investment powers reserved to lawmakers. CryptoSlate also notes that the 2025 order requires implementation that complies with applicable law and the availability of appropriations, setting boundaries on what the executive branch can do.
CryptoSlate adds that the White House’s July 2025 digital assets report indicated work would continue on operationalizing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, with qualifying Bitcoin entering the reserve via final criminal or civil forfeiture. It also cites that in January 2026 the US obtained legal title to more than $400 million in cryptocurrencies and other assets tied to the Helix mixer case, highlighting how forfeiture-related assets can flow into federal crypto frameworks.
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