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At a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets Bo Hines sat flanked by Chairman Tim Scott and Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis and confirmed that the United States has already begun moving seized or previously held Bitcoin into the newly created Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Play Advances

The disclosure came in response to a question about the execution of President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order on digital assets. Hines explained that “the EO… mandated an accounting to take place in which the Treasury [is] spearheading that,” noting that the department has now “received the numbers from the different agencies inside of the government.” Those numbers reflect coins accumulated piecemeal over the past decade through criminal forfeitures, civil penalties, and unspent research allocations across multiple departments.

Describing the next phase, Hines told lawmakers that “there are a lot of different actors that held on to some Bitcoin and in some fashion or another,” adding that “now the process begins in […] establishing the reserve, the actual infrastructure behind it, and getting all of that accomplished.”

Hines stressed that publication of the full audit is optional: “There’s nothing in the EO that mandates that that report become public, but we could choose to make it public at some point.”

The administration’s strategic intent is unambiguous. “We’ve stated publicly that Bitcoin is digital gold,” Hines said, repeating language he has used since early March. “We believe it’s in the best interest of the United States to garner as much as we can possibly get.” That ambition, he added, must be squared with the order’s fiscal guard-rails: “Obviously this has to be done in budget-neutral ways that don’t cost the taxpayer a dime. The president was clear about that in the executive order.”

Hines, gesturing to the two senators beside him, struck an optimistic note with regards to acquiring Bitcoin in a budget-neutral way: “I think we have some very creative minds, two of which are sitting up here with me, and I think we’ll begin moving very quickly on that.”

GENIUS First, CLARITY Next, Bitcoin Last

Finding those budget-neutral mechanisms now falls to Capitol Hill. Senator Lummis reminded colleagues that the House-passed GENIUS Act—covering stablecoins—should reach the president for signing in July, while a Senate draft of a broader market-structure bill “is on track before the August recess,” with Banking Committee markup set for the first week of September.

Via X, “Crypto Czar” David Sacks confirmed: “Thank you to Senate Banking Committee Chair Senator Tim Scott and Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Senator Lummis for announcing a clear timeline and plan for comprehensive crypto market structure legislation: Bill introduced before August recess, Mark up first week of September, Done by end of September. President Trump supports CLARITY on market structure as well as GENIUS on stablecoins. Let’s get this done! July will be a big month, with a bill signing for GENIUS, and CLARITY going to the Senate!”

Previously, Lummis made clear that the forthcoming bills on stablecoins and broader market structure would reach Congress before lawmakers take up the proposed Bitcoin Accumulation Act, which would authorize additional federal purchases of BTC.

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $106,766.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

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