White House Touts Crypto Report as U.S. Bitcoin Reserve Plans Remain in Limbo

Bitcoin's institutional adoption hits another bureaucratic speedbump.

While the White House waves its latest crypto report like a victory flag, tangible progress on U.S. Bitcoin reserves remains conspicuously absent—because nothing says 'financial revolution' like government working groups and impact assessments.

The administration's 'crypto-forward' stance looks increasingly like political theater as Treasury officials continue treating digital assets like a science fair project. Meanwhile, China's digital yuan marches forward and El Salvador's Bitcoin bonds mature—but sure, let's celebrate another PDF report collecting dust in some D.C. filing cabinet.

Here's the real headline: America's 'strategic Bitcoin reserve' currently holds exactly zero BTC. But hey, at least the lobbying firms are making bank.

A call to action

Meanwhile, Wednesday's report could be read by sitting U.S. regulators as a call to action. The group of regulators who agreed on its content "encourages the Federal government to operationalize President Trump’s promise to make America the 'crypto capital of the world' and adopt a pro-innovation mindset toward digital assets and blockchain technologies," the report said.

More specifically, its Core recommendations suggest that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) "should use their existing authorities to immediately enable the trading of digital assets at the federal level." That's a push to get started with regulation even as Congress produces its market structure work, and though the CFTC still lacks a permanent leadership under Trump, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has suggested his agency has the authorities to act that he's been exploring.

The report also included a tax section that echoes a number of the ideas also pushed by Senator Lummis, the chair of the Senate Banking Committee's subcommittee on digital assets. A package of tax revisions she included in her legislative effort are meant to reduce burdens on crypto users, including by setting a minimum value by which a transaction should be subject to capital-gains considerations and an overhaul of when gains should be factored into crypto rewards from practices such as staking.