Bitcoin's price dipped on Thursday as markets were left underwhelmed by an executive order from President Donald Trump creating a strategic reserve made up of the cryptocurrency already owned by the government.
Bitcoin's price fell by around five per cent to $85,000 before recovering overnight on Trump's announcement that the long-trailed 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' will be capitalised with tokens the federal government has already seized in criminal and civil asset forfeiture proceedings.
Many in the industry had been pushing for the government to actively buy Bitcoin, an option that the order does leave open. The White House says that commerce and treasury secretaries "are authorised to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies impose no incremental costs on American taxpayers."
A separate 'US Digital Asset Stockpile' will hold non-Bitcoin crypto that will not be grown other than through forfeiture proceedings.
According to Bloomberg, the US currently owns about $16.4 billion worth of Bitcoin and about $400 million worth of seven other tokens.
Trump trailed the plan earlier this week on social media, sending prices soaring by claiming that the digital asset reserve would include Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token, and Cardano’s ADA.