White House Says Bitcoin Reserve Update Is Coming Soon

The White House is preparing its next update on the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, according to Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. He spoke Monday at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas and said more details should arrive within weeks.

Good to Know

• The reserve focuses on Bitcoin already held by the U.S. government.
• Most of that Bitcoin comes from criminal and civil forfeiture cases.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the government does not plan direct market purchases for now.

U.S. Bitcoin Plan Moves Toward Next Stage

The U.S. government may soon explain how it plans to manage the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in practice. This means the next update could cover custody, legal rules, reporting, and how federal agencies protect seized BTC rather than selling it.

Witt said the administration has been working through the legal and operational details tied to the reserve plan of President Donald Trump.

“The president signed the strategic bitcoin reserve executive order last year, and we’ve gone to work in figuring out exactly the machinations necessary and legal interpretations that we need to get that right and solidify that and protect the digital assets, specifically bitcoin that we have on the government balance sheet.”

Trump signed the executive order in March 2025. It created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for BTC and a separate digital asset stockpile for other crypto assets. The plan directs the government to hold Bitcoin it already owns, mainly coins seized in legal cases, instead of sending them to auction.

A reserve simply means the government keeps an asset for long-term use or value storage. Gold has played that role for decades. Bitcoin supporters see the reserve as a sign that BTC now has a place in national financial planning, even though the government has not committed to buying Bitcoin on open markets.

Bessent recently said the U.S. government holds between $15 billion and $20 billion worth of Bitcoin. He also said confiscated BTC can keep going into the reserve, while direct purchases are not part of the current plan.

The gold comparison also keeps coming up. Bessent said:

“We’ve got the large gold holding. I doubt we’re going to revalue it, but we are going to keep it there as a store of value for the American people.”

So, for now, the plan looks simple enough. The government wants to keep seized Bitcoin, protect it properly, and treat it more like a long-term public asset. The next White House update should show how that plan turns into day-to-day policy.