Scott Bessent Backs Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Urges Senate to Pass Clear Legislation
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that the Trump administration is committed to building the United States’ Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, expressing enthusiasm for the effort and asking lawmakers to advance major crypto regulations before the end of the summer.
Bessent appeared before the committee during a hearing on “The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 for the Department of the Treasury,” where senators pressed him on financial priorities.
The exchange quickly moved into the administration’s digital asset program, with Bessent linking the bitcoin cache to his broader national security doctrine.
“Economic security is national security,” Bessent told the committee – an argument he has continued to make in recent weeks, including a major speech at the Reagan National Economic Forum in California, where he argued that America was “sleeping” on economic security for 25 years before President Trump took office. Under Trump’s leadership, he said, that trend is reversing.
US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
In the park itself, Bessent struck a tone of limited confidence. “We are proceeding with all the speed that was intended,” he said. “And we make sure that… we use the best practices and things will last a long time in the future.”
He acknowledged that standing up for the conservancy is a complex, unprecedented undertaking — “new technology,” “new environment” — but he didn’t sign a retreat.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was established by a large order on March 6, 2025, and currently holds approximately 328,372 BTC, with an estimated value of $25 billion.
All seizures come from criminal seizures and law enforcement seizures, not open market purchases. The executive order prohibits the Treasury Department from selling any of those coins and orders it to develop budget-neutral strategies to get more.
To give the cryptocurrency a permanent legal basis, Congress was passing the BITCOIN Act – sponsored by Sen. Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming – who will authorize the Treasury Department to buy 200,000 BTC per year over five years, for a total of one million bitcoins, held for at least 20 years.
Without congressional action, the reservation depends on an executive order that a future president can revoke.
Bessent on Wednesday made it clear that he wants that core of the law in place, and paired the bitcoin push with a direct call for lawmakers to pass the Clarification Act.
“I look forward to the Clear Act being passed this summer,” he told the committee.
The bill, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote in May, would establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets, defining when crypto tokens are classified as securities or assets.
The combination of the depository and the Clarity Act represents the largest crypto policy in US history – and on Wednesday, Bessent put his name behind both.
