{"id":52462,"date":"2026-06-03T13:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=52462"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:10:14","slug":"scott-bessent-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/scott-bessent-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","title":{"rendered":"Scott Bessent Backs Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Urges Senate to Pass Clarity Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R7lgE8lUuR8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that the Trump administration is committed to building out the United States&#8217; Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, expressing enthusiasm for the effort and calling on lawmakers to advance major crypto legislation before the summer&#8217;s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bessent appeared before the committee at a hearing on &#8220;The President&#8217;s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget for the Department of the Treasury,&#8221; where senators pressed him on a range of fiscal priorities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exchange quickly moved into the administration&#8217;s digital asset agenda, with Bessent tying the bitcoin reserve to his broader national security doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Economic security is national security,&#8221; Bessent told the committee \u2014 an argument he has been advancing in recent weeks, including in a major address at the Reagan National Economic Forum in California, where he argued that America had been &#8220;asleep&#8221; on economic security for 25 years before President Trump took office. Under Trump&#8217;s leadership, he said, that course is now reversing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he&#39;s looking forward to working with lawmakers on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve \ud83d\udc40<br><br>&quot;We are proceeding with all deliberate speed. And we are making sure&#8230;we use best practices and things will be durable for the future&quot; \ud83d\ude80 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wMuttlfTlc\">pic.twitter.com\/wMuttlfTlc<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/2062218759067009176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the reserve itself, Bessent struck a tone of measured confidence. &#8220;We are proceeding with all deliberate speed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And we are making sure&#8230;we use best practices and things will be durable for the future.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He acknowledged that standing up the reserve is a complex, unprecedented undertaking \u2014 &#8220;new technology,&#8221; &#8220;new ground&#8221; \u2014 but signaled no retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/fact-sheets\/2025\/03\/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-u-s-digital-asset-stockpile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was established<\/a> by executive order on March 6, 2025, and currently holds an estimated 328,372 BTC, valued at roughly $25 billion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All holdings came from criminal forfeitures and law enforcement seizures, not open-market purchases. The executive order prohibits the Treasury from selling any of those coins and instructs it to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To give the reserve a permanent legal foundation, Congress has been weighing the BITCOIN Act \u2014 sponsored by Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming \u2014 which would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/senate-bill\/954\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">authorize<\/a> the Treasury to purchase 200,000 BTC per year over five years, for a total of one million bitcoin, held for a minimum of 20 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without congressional action, the reserve rests on executive authority that a future president could rescind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bessent on Wednesday made clear he wants that legislative backbone in place, and he paired the bitcoin push with a direct call for lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I look forward to the Clarity Act being passed this summer,&#8221; he told the committee.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bill, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/senate-committee-advances-clarity-act\">by a 15-9 vote<\/a> in May, would establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets, defining when crypto tokens are classified as securities or commodities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The combination of the reserve and the Clarity Act represents the most substantial federal crypto policy push in U.S. history \u2014 and on Wednesday, Bessent put his name behind both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee that the Trump administration is moving forward with a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and urged Congress to pass the BITCOIN Act and Clarity Act to solidify and expand the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3817,"featured_media":52467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[5492,248,6493,652,4286],"class_list":["post-52462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bessent","tag-bitcoin-reserve","tag-scott-bessent","tag-senate","tag-strategic-bitcoin-reserve"],"author_data":{"id":3817,"name":"Micah Zimmerman","nicename":"micahzimmerman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Micah_Zimmerman_Author_Image.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Scott-Bessent-Backs-Strategic-Bitcoin-Reserve-Urges-Senate-to-Pass-Clarity-Act.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}