US Agency Turf War Stalls Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Treasury and Commerce are fighting over who controls Trump's Bitcoin reserve as legal questions mount, even as BTC prices climbed Monday.
A bureaucratic power struggle between two of Washington's most powerful financial agencies is threatening to derail one of President Donald Trump's signature crypto policies. The Treasury and Commerce departments are both claiming authority to oversee the planned Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a centerpiece of Trump's pro-crypto agenda, while unresolved legal questions about whether the federal government can indefinitely hold a volatile digital asset like Bitcoin have paralyzed progress on the initiative.
Trump originally ordered the reserve established with Bitcoin seized through federal asset forfeiture, housed under the Treasury Department. But sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that concerns over Treasury's legal authority to manage such holdings have pushed officials to consider shifting the operation to the Commerce Department. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is now actively working with both agencies to find a legally defensible structure — a process that signals the policy is nowhere near implementation.
Read more Crowds Fill Tehran Streets to Mourn Ayatollah Khamenei →
The US government currently holds more than $20 billion in Bitcoin spread across various federal agencies, making Washington one of the single largest Bitcoin holders in the world. That scale means any eventual decision on where the reserve lands — and what rules govern it — could carry real consequences for global Bitcoin supply dynamics. The legal ambiguity around price volatility and long-term custody remains a central sticking point for government lawyers.
Despite the uncertainty, Bitcoin rose Monday — a rally made more notable by Strategy's disclosure that Michael Saylor's firm sold 3,588 Bitcoin between June 29 and July 5. Traders appear to be pricing the reserve dispute as a slow-moving structural question rather than an immediate market catalyst. Still, Bitcoin remains down nearly 50% from its October all-time high, leaving the strategic reserve debate playing out against a backdrop of significant price weakness.
Continue reading at Forexlive.
