The White House released its long-awaited report on crypto on Wednesday, detailing a number of policy recommendations that omitted a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve.
The 166-page document provides recommendations for multiple aspects of the crypto industry, including banking policy, stablecoins and countering illicit finance. The report does mention the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, insofar as it was established back in March, but makes no mention of further development.
Bitcoin maximalists have stated that the Bitcoin reserve order should allow the government to actively purchase the asset in a strategy more akin to El Salvador.
While the crypto industry has largely welcomed the report and its potential effect on blockchain policymaking, others believe the lack of action on a Bitcoin reserve is a missed opportunity.
White House crypto report falls short on reserve plans
On Jan. 23, just three days after taking office, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets. He set a 180-day deadline for policy recommendations.
The US government has been in pro-crypto overdrive, leading many observers to expect significant updates to the so-called Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Following news that the White House would include an update to the reserve, Bitcoin historian and advocate Pete Rizzo advised followers to “buckle up.”
The report contains dozens of references to Bitcoin and its status as the seminal cryptocurrency that sparked the entire crypto industry, but the strategic Bitcoin reserve is mentioned only once at the very end.
Even here, the “recommendation” presented by the White House is a simple restatement of the terms laid out in the March 6 executive order, which established the reserve and its concomitant digital asset stockpile.
The Bitcoin community expressed its disappointment. CJ Burnett, chief revenue officer of Compass Mining — a US-based crypto mining hosting firm with operations in Ohio and Texas — told Cointelegraph, “The absence of any mention of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in today’s White House report is a missed opportunity. Markets were watching for leadership and instead got ambiguity.”
Burnett said that the lack of progress on a Bitcoin reserve creates “unnecessary uncertainty” and risks putting the US behind other countries.
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Bitcoin influencer George Bodine characterized the lack of action on a Bitcoin reserve as another betrayal of trust by the government.
Others were more optimistic. Canadian blockchain and Web3 investor Calvin Ayre said that the mere mention of Bitcoin in the report was already progress: “While many are disappointed at the lack of ‘Bitcoin reserve’ details in the White House report, give them credit for creating a document that at least attempts to explain in detail how all this stuff works.”
Bitcoin journalist Susie Violet Ward said the report “represents a clear policy shift. For the first time, Bitcoin is treated as something distinct, quoted, cited, and understood on its own terms.”
She said that, while there are scant details on the Bitcoin reserve, “the fact that Bitcoin is being considered a strategic asset, separate from other digital assets, indicates a clear shift in policy tone.”
“For Bitcoiners, this is progress.”
White House stresses clear policy
Bitcoin reserves aside, the report presents detailed policy proposals for how crypto regulations should be updated.
Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, said that the policy proposals laid out in the report are already being implemented in three phases.
Demolition phase — where lawmakers get rid of rules implemented during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Construction phase — where lawmakers work with the industry to create laws that would help the industry thrive.
Implementation phase — passing the laws.
One of the primary goals of the report was to create a “taxonomy” for digital assets to determine which could be securities or commodities. In this regard, it also recommends that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission should share oversight over crypto, with the CFTC regulating spot crypto markets.
The report also suggested that banks be allowed to custody crypto and provide crypto-related services to clients. It also stated that the process of getting a banking charter should be easier, with more transparent requirements.
Tax, which has long been a sore spot for crypto holders in the US — different agencies all classify crypto differently and recommend it be taxed differently — was also included in the report.
The administration recommended that “legislation should be enacted that treats digital assets as a new class of assets subject to modified versions of tax rules applicable to securities or commodities for federal income tax purposes.”
Overall, the administration is aiming to enhance crypto adoption through its policies and subsequent legislative efforts to such a degree that a backslide into a more restrictive regulatory environment could never happen, said Hines.
The crypto industry gave the moniker “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” to the regulatory environment during the Biden administration. Hines said, “There’s no way that we’re going to face an Operation Chokepoint 3.0. I think one of the greatest ways to prevent that is through adoption.”
Adoption of an active Bitcoin reserve, though, will still have to wait, at least for now.
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