US crypto reserve clarification coming? Wait til Friday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly said a bitcoin strategic reserve could be “executed on Friday”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick | Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
Many in the US woke up Wednesday to bitcoin back above $90,000.
After Donald Trump mentioned five tokens in his Sunday post about a crypto reserve, prices soared. BTC included (despite confusion from some about why this wouldn’t be a BTC-only reserve).
Bitcoin ascended to about $95,000 Sunday, but essentially lost all those gains Monday. It traded in the mid-80s for much of Tuesday.
The early Wednesday surge wasn’t because Trump mentioned BTC in his address to Congress Tuesday night. He didn’t.
Rather it came after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly said a bitcoin strategic reserve is “something the president’s interested in.” He added: “I think you’re going to see it executed on Friday.”
Lutnick, the ex-CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, previously noted that TradFi firms would go “headfirst” into bitcoin when the regulatory environment improves.
Tokens outside of BTC could be treated “positively, but differently” than the largest crypto asset, he told The Pavlovic Today. I applaud the journalist who was able to chat with Lutnick about this. But I still take the comments with a grain of salt.
It seems kind of noncommittal. Trump’s interested in it and Lutnick thinks it will happen.
The best us onlookers can do is first see what the administration says at Friday’s crypto summit. Then go from there.
Chief bitcoin bull Michael Saylor said he was invited to the event. CNBC asked him if he thought any assets not named bitcoin should be in a US crypto reserve?
His response: “I think if you’re looking out over the next 100 years trying to figure out how you capitalize a nation-state or a country, what you want is a digital commodity.”
That would be bitcoin.
“But if you have a sovereign wealth fund, then I think it’s well within the rights of the leader of the nation to decide to put proprietary assets, securities, tokens and the like into it,” Saylor added.
Trump’s executive order gives the Working Group until late July to make policy recommendations, including about a “national digital asset stockpile.” So don’t expect to know everything on Friday.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
- Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
- Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
- Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
- The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
