Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that the Trump administration is committed to building out the United States’ Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, expressing enthusiasm for the effort and calling on lawmakers to advance major crypto legislation before the summer’s end.
Bessent appeared before the committee at a hearing on “The President’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget for the Department of the Treasury,” where senators pressed him on a range of fiscal priorities.
The exchange quickly moved into the administration’s digital asset agenda, with Bessent tying the bitcoin reserve to his broader national security doctrine.
“Economic security is national security,” Bessent told the committee — an argument he has been advancing in recent weeks, including in a major address at the Reagan National Economic Forum in California, where he argued that America had been “asleep” on economic security for 25 years before President Trump took office. Under Trump’s leadership, he said, that course is now reversing.
The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
On the reserve itself, Bessent struck a tone of measured confidence. “We are proceeding with all deliberate speed,” he said. “And we are making sure…we use best practices and things will be durable for the future.”
He acknowledged that standing up the reserve is a complex, unprecedented undertaking — “new technology,” “new ground” — but signaled no retreat.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was established by executive order on March 6, 2025, and currently holds an estimated 328,372 BTC, valued at roughly $25 billion.
All holdings came from criminal forfeitures and law enforcement seizures, not open-market purchases. The executive order prohibits the Treasury from selling any of those coins and instructs it to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring more.
To give the reserve a permanent legal foundation, Congress has been weighing the BITCOIN Act — sponsored by Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming — which would authorize the Treasury to purchase 200,000 BTC per year over five years, for a total of one million bitcoin, held for a minimum of 20 years.
Without congressional action, the reserve rests on executive authority that a future president could rescind.
Bessent on Wednesday made clear he wants that legislative backbone in place, and he paired the bitcoin push with a direct call for lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act.
“I look forward to the Clarity Act being passed this summer,” he told the committee.
The bill, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee by a 15-9 vote in May, would establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets, defining when crypto tokens are classified as securities or commodities.
The combination of the reserve and the Clarity Act represents the most substantial federal crypto policy push in U.S. history — and on Wednesday, Bessent put his name behind both.