According to Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets at VanEck, establishing a lasting U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve may require targeted legislation rather than an executive order. At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Sigel stated that the most viable path may be to introduce Bitcoin mining incentives during the congressional budget adjustment process.
Sigel believes that the most effective way to achieve growth in the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve is through targeted revisions to congressional budget laws. These amendments could include providing tax credits to mining companies using methane gas and encouraging mining companies to share a portion of mined Bitcoin as other incentives for the federal government.
He pointed out that this approach would allow the reserves to naturally grow over time. Sigel also emphasized the limitations of achieving this goal through executive measures:
"The problem with executive measures is that they could trigger lawsuits. Any action exceeding $100 million could be litigated. Therefore, I would suggest initially allocating $100 million from the trading stabilization fund to get started."
U.S. President Donald Trump established the U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve through an executive order on March 7. According to the order, the U.S. government can only acquire Bitcoin through budget neutral strategies or asset seizures, prompting various discussions on how to increase the government's nearly 200,000 BTC inventory.
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Legislators and officials propose different plans to expand the strategic Bitcoin reserve
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a Bitcoin strategic reserve bill in the Senate in July 2024, proposing to convert a portion of the gold certificates held by the U.S. Treasury into Bitcoin.
Converting gold to Bitcoin would allow the U.S. government to purchase more Bitcoin without increasing the tax burden on taxpayers, Lummis said.
Bo Haines, executive director of the President's Digital Assets Advisory Committee, also called on the Treasury to re-evaluate its gold holdings and convert some of the proceeds into Bitcoin in March 2025. This strategy would also be budget neutral, Haines said.
In April, gold prices reached a historic high of $3,500 per ounce but slightly retreated to around $3,300 on May 27.
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