Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Stalled: Treasury-Commerce Turf War Delays Strategic Plan

President Trump's plan to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has run into major legal and bureaucratic issues; the Treasury and Commerce agencies are allegedly at odds over control of confiscated bitcoin meant to seed the reserve. While the initiative was formally established in an executive order in March 2025, implementation has slowed dramatically as departments address legal authority, asset transfers, and jurisdiction issues.

The first proposal called for funding the reserve mostly with bitcoin given up to the Treasury via civil and criminal asset forfeiture actions. While Treasury and Commerce were charged with investigating budget-neutral ways to buy more bitcoin, other government organizations were also pushed to look at moving their bitcoin reserves into the reserve.

For crypto markets, the delay begged issues about the U.S. government's Bitcoin strategy's operational coherence and severity. While a clear and consistent strategy would help long-term institutional confidence, ongoing inter-agency conflict might cast doubt on the course of policy and lower expectations for government-driven demand in the near term.