Comprehensive Insights on Bitcoin and Crypto Policies
In a significant late-night social media update on July 21, former President Donald Trump shared a video featuring Peter Van Valkenburgh, the research director at Coin Center, delivering testimony to the Senate in 2018. Trump praised this as the “greatest Bitcoin explanation of all time,” encouraging his supporters to watch the full presentation.
This video, part of a Banking Committee hearing focused on the emerging crypto ecosystem, highlights Van Valkenburgh’s pivotal argument. He describes Bitcoin as “the world’s first public digital payments infrastructure,” emphasizing its capability to allow global value transfer with just a computer and internet connection. Van Valkenburgh further deemed Bitcoin a “computer-science breakthrough,” potentially as transformative as the Internet’s inception in advancing human freedom.
Anticipated Report on Strategic Bitcoin Reserves
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Trump’s endorsement surfaced just before a crucial deadline. On January 23, he signed Executive Order 14178, tasking a high-level Working Group on Digital Asset Markets with delivering extensive legislative and regulatory recommendations on cryptocurrencies within 180 days. The report is expected by July 22.
Speculation is rife across various platforms, suggesting that this forthcoming report will, for the first time, provide an official account of federal Bitcoin holdings. It is anticipated that these holdings will be integrated into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, established by an order on March 6, and propose “budget-neutral” strategies to expand the reserve without relying on taxpayer funds.
Independent analyses indicate substantial Bitcoin holdings. According to Chainalysis, wallets managed by U.S. agencies contain approximately 200,000 BTC, valued at about $20.4 billion, positioning Washington as the largest sovereign Bitcoin holder.
However, the current status of these holdings is ambiguous. In December 2024, shortly before Trump’s presidency commenced, a federal judge permitted the Justice Department to sell 69,370 BTC seized from the Silk Road hacker known as “Individual X,” which was then valued at approximately $6.5 billion. Under the previous administration, these coins were transferred to Coinbase Prime.
In contrast, Trump’s March directive prohibits selling reserve Bitcoin and instructs the Treasury and Commerce departments to devise cost-neutral acquisition strategies.
This announcement also concludes “Crypto Week,” during which Trump signed the GENIUS Act, the first federal law regulating dollar-backed stablecoins. Concurrently, the House advanced the CLARITY Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, potentially shifting enforcement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and precluding a Federal Reserve digital currency.
The Working Group’s report may or may not align with Van Valkenburgh’s assertion that “Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money.” However, with Trump personally amplifying this narrative and the policy blueprint imminent, Washington’s next steps on cryptocurrency regulation will soon transition from conjecture to official record.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $118,216.
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