Update (March 7, 12:55 am UTC): This article has been updated to add more information from David Sacks’ X post and information on US government crypto holdings.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a digital asset stockpile, says the White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
“Just a few minutes ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” Sacks said in a March 7 X post. He explained the reserve would initially be funded with assets seized by the government.
”The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings,” he added.
Additionally, the order also established a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile,” which Sacks said consisted of digital assets other than forfeited Bitcoin.
Bloomberg had earlier reported that Trump was expected to sign an executive order establishing a Bitcoin reserve during the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, with one option that included seeding it with government-seized crypto.
Sacks said the Bitcoin reserve was “a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency,” and the US wouldn’t sell any Bitcoin put in the reserve.
“It will be kept as a store of value,” he added.
As for the digital asset stockpile, Sacks said its purpose is the “responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department.”
Notably, he added that the government wouldn’t acquire additional assets for the stockpile “beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.”
Trump’s earlier posts on his Truth Social platform that said the crypto reserve would include XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA).
He later added Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) would be “the heart” of the reserve.
The US government is holding around $18.28 billion worth of seized crypto, with 198,109 BTC worth $17.87 billion making up the bulk of its holdings, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Related: Trump’s World Liberty bought $20M worth of crypto ahead of March 7 summit
However, Sacks claimed there had never been a complete audit of the government’s crypto holdings, and Trump’s latest order “directs a full accounting of the federal government’s digital asset holdings.”
Arkham’s data shows the government’s third-largest holding, behind $122 million worth of Tether (USDT), is over $119 million worth of ETH.
According to Arkham, the US government does not hold any XRP, SOL or ADA.
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