Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed the Trump administration's commitment to expanding the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget. Bessent told senators that “economic security is national security,” linking the reserve directly to U.S. competitiveness. He emphasized that the Treasury is proceeding with “deliberate speed” because the project involves new technology and legal territory, aiming to create durable rules that outlast the current administration.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, established by President Donald Trump’s executive order on March 6, 2025, currently holds about 328,372 BTC—worth roughly $25 billion—seized from criminal forfeitures and law enforcement actions. The order prohibits the Treasury from selling these holdings and directs officials to find budget-neutral methods to acquire more bitcoin. Without legislation, a future president could undo the program, prompting calls for congressional action.
At the hearing, Bessent strongly urged lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act this summer, a bill that would define when crypto tokens fall under securities or commodities oversight and resolve uncertainty around institutional custody and stablecoins. The act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May by a 15-9 vote. He also backed Senator Cynthia Lummis’s BITCOIN Act, which would codify the reserve into law, allowing the Treasury to purchase 200,000 BTC annually for five years up to a total of one million bitcoin, with a mandatory 20-year holding period. Bessent’s dual push for legislative backing and regulatory clarity signals a sustained federal effort to integrate digital assets into national economic security policy, even as Congress faces a tight schedule before midterm elections. The Treasury plans to release official operational guidelines in the coming weeks.
