US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to steady crypto markets by clarifying his department’s stance on Bitcoin in a post on X.
Scott Bessent Says US Treasury Exploring Budget-Neutral Bitcoin Reserve
15 August 2025 - 10:52 CEST
In the message posted late Thursday, Bessent said the US would continue pursuing “budget-neutral” methods to acquire and store Bitcoin, with forfeited holdings to the US government forming the core of the new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Investor disappointment
The reassurance followed an interview with Fox Business earlier that day, where Bessent temporarily dashed hopes of direct government purchases of Bitcoin.
“We’ve also started to get into the 21st century—a Bitcoin reserve,” he said. “We’re not going to be buying that, but we are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up.”
Bitcoin fell off an all-time high on Thursday and slumped at around 12:30 UTC as new produce price index figures in the US suggested higher inflationary concerns. The suggestion that no direct purchases were planned for the reserve coincided with further selling of the coin. From 14:30 UTC, the time of his interview, prices slid below $120,000 to around $117,693 by 17:50 UTC according to CoinMarketCap.
Follow-up tweet
At 20:46 UTC, Bessent posted a follow-up tweet qualifying the Treasury Department’s intent to grow the reserve through budget-neutral measures and fulfill the President’s goal of making the US “the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”
The tweet had little immediate impact, however. Bitcoin traded at around $118,000-$119,000 and was worth $119,137 at 08:11 on Friday, more than 4% below the previous day’s record peak.
