US government unlikely to buy Bitcoin for strategic reserve, Bitget CEO says

The US government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is looking more like a trophy case than a war chest. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has said she does not expect Washington to make any open-market Bitcoin purchases before the end of President Donald Trump’s current term.

That view is grounded in how the reserve was actually built. The executive order establishing it, signed on March 6, 2025, explicitly limits the reserve to Bitcoin seized or forfeited through criminal and civil asset proceedings. No taxpayer money goes in. No market orders get placed.

What the reserve actually is

The US holds a substantial amount of Bitcoin accumulated through law enforcement actions, and the executive order simply formalizes the decision to keep it rather than sell it.

The order also prohibits the government from selling its holdings, which creates an interesting one-way door. Bitcoin goes in when courts rule against defendants. It does not come back out.

As of mid-2026, no additional Bitcoin has been acquired through any purchase mechanism, and the administrative focus has stayed on building the legal and custodial infrastructure needed to manage existing holdings. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has voiced support for Bitcoin as a strategic asset but has stopped well short of announcing any acquisition plans.

Administration officials have privately acknowledged the reserve’s limited scale, describing its current importance as largely symbolic.

Why Chen’s read matters

Gracy Chen runs one of the larger centralized crypto exchanges by trading volume. Her skepticism about near-term purchases aligns with what the executive order’s text actually says, rather than what Bitcoin advocates hoped it might eventually enable.

When the executive order dropped in March 2025, some corners of the crypto market priced in the possibility that government purchasing would follow. It has not.

Chen’s comment that purchases are unlikely before Trump’s term ends resets that expectation more explicitly. The term concludes in January 2029, and the implication is that even within a four-year window friendly to Bitcoin, the structural constraints of the current order make large-scale acquisition a low-probability event.

Open-market purchases would require Congressional authorization, budget allocation, and a public debate about using taxpayer funds to buy a volatile digital asset. None of those conversations have gained serious legislative traction.

What this means for the market

The prohibition on sales does remove some supply-side uncertainty. Bitcoin held in the reserve stays there, reducing the risk that a future administration could liquidate holdings and depress prices.

Several proposals have circulated on Capitol Hill that would authorize direct purchases, funded through mechanisms that avoid direct taxpayer exposure. None have cleared committee as of mid-2026.