97% of the U.S. government's $20.9B crypto reserve is in Bitcoin

The U.S. crypto reserves have been revealed to be 97% made up of Bitcoin, with Ethereum and stablecoins making up the remaining 3%. 

New data has shown that Bitcoin (BTC) makes up an overwhelming 97% of the United States’ newly centralized $20.9B cryptocurrency reserve.

Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA), tokens that President Trump included in his strategic crypto reserve announcement, were noticeably missing from the reserve despite the earlier hype caused by the president’s initial pronouncements.

These numbers, provided by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, have given the public clarity as to what is inside of the U.S. government’s vaults following Trump’s executive order in March to formally create a national crypto reserve strategy.

US crypto reserves revealed

Though the Trump administration has not gone public with the official numbers, the data reviewed by The Washington Post indicates that the lion’s share of the United States’ seized and stored crypto is in Bitcoin — nearly $20.4B of the total.

This concentration on Bitcoin sharply contrasts with the expectations Trump raised with his earlier statements. In a post on Truth Social made on March 2, the president name-dropped XRP, SOL, and ADA, consequently causing the value of those coins to spike, but now those same coins are absent from the actual reserve holdings.

President Trump’s executive order created two new digital financial entities, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. The Bitcoin Reserve is essentially a digital Fort Knox meant to treat BTC like “digital gold,” according to Trump.

The Digital Asset Stockpile, on the other hand, is a mix of whatever other crypto the government happens to seize, so its composition is unplanned and left to chance.

Because the assets in both pools are primarily made up of cryptocurrency confiscated in civil or criminal proceedings, the government’s holdings reflect the coins most commonly involved in illicit activities, not necessarily the coins with the highest reputational value or the strongest developer communities

As such, Bitcoin is overwhelmingly leading the reserve, followed by a smaller assortment of coins including Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), Chainlink (LINK), WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin), BNB (Binance Coin), DAI, UNI, TRX, and USDC, among others

Stablecoins and wrapped tokens feature heavily in the treasury, while XRP, ADA, and SOL didn’t even make the top 20.

Chainalysis suggests the current reserve figure is likely underestimating the full scope of government holdings, as the official audit and accounting process is still ongoing.

The $20.9B estimate already places the U.S. government’s crypto assets just under the $25B value of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and well above its outdated gold reserve valuation, which would top $850B at current prices.

Industry reaction to the report

Previously, cryptocurrencies that were seized by agencies like the IRS or FBI were often sold off or returned to victims. Now, under Trump’s directive, they’re being stored as strategic assets much like one would oil or gold.

The rate of lawsuits and regulatory probes has slowed under Trump’s administration, and crypto firms are now finding a friendlier environment to grow.

But not everyone is thrilled by the reserve. Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, warned in a Washington Post interview that government involvement in crypto risks “violating crypto’s original mission of decentralization and openness.”

Similarly, an NYU professor and crypto consultant, Austin Campbell, has called the reserve a potential contradiction to crypto’s core values. “Bitcoiners used to be about freedom from sovereign interference,” he said. “Now they’re cheering for a national stockpile?”

Campbell also pointed out that the government could put the seized assets to better use, addressing the national debt or improving social programs. “Reserves make sense when you’re running a surplus,” he said. “Right now, they just make headlines.”

Despite the criticism, states like New Hampshire and Arizona have passed legislation to create their own crypto stockpiles. Others, like Florida and Wyoming, opted not to create their own reserves due to their concerns about the volatility of cryptocurrencies.

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