Sixteen months after President Trump issued an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the effort remains a work in progress. Bloomberg reported on July 6, 2026 that the Treasury and Commerce Departments are both making a case to run the reserve and the underlying legal authority has not been settled.
The initial order created the reserve on paper using coins seized during legal proceedings. It did not resolve which agency has operational control, how new purchases would be funded, or which custody model would be used.
What is actually held
The reserve at present is the aggregate of federal Bitcoin holdings from asset seizures across multiple agencies. New purchases are contemplated in the executive order but have not been implemented as a live program.
The political sequence
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly emphasized careful framework development and urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act as a prerequisite for orderly digital‑asset market oversight. A Trump advisor separately teased a "breakthrough" in the coming weeks. As of publication, no operational launch, funding line, or executive‑branch agreement on control has been announced.
