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VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel, advocates for legislative action over executive orders to establish a permanent US strategic Bitcoin reserve. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025, he proposed incorporating Bitcoin mining incentives into the congressional budget reconciliation process. This approach, he argues, offers a more sustainable and less legally contentious path to accumulating Bitcoin for the reserve.
Sigel suggests amendments to budget legislation could include tax credits for mining companies utilizing methane gas and other incentives encouraging miners to contribute a portion of their mined Bitcoin to the federal government. This organic growth model avoids the legal challenges associated with large-scale executive actions. He cautions that executive actions exceeding $100 million are likely to face lawsuits, suggesting a starting point of $100 million within the Exchange Stabilization Fund.
President Trump’s March 7th executive order established the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, limiting acquisition to budget-neutral strategies or asset forfeiture. This has sparked various proposals for expanding the government’s Bitcoin holdings, currently nearing 200,000 BTC.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, a key figure in proposing Bitcoin reserve legislation in July 2024, suggests converting a portion of the US Treasury’s gold certificates into Bitcoin. This budget-neutral approach would leverage the current high gold price to acquire Bitcoin without additional taxpayer expense.
Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, supports this idea. He urges the Treasury to revalue its gold holdings, currently priced at $42.22 per troy ounce, and allocate a portion of the resulting gains to Bitcoin acquisition. This strategy also maintains budget neutrality, capitalizing on gold’s recent all-time high of $3,500 per ounce (with a slight pullback to around $3,300 on May 27th). These proposals highlight the ongoing debate and exploration of effective strategies for building a robust US Bitcoin reserve.
