The US must use budget-neutral ways to increase its BTC reserve. Which ways are already on the table?

On Mar. 6, 2025, an executive order set up the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order prohibits the government from selling bitcoins or buying more using taxpayers’ money. Since then, it has been unclear how the U.S. is going to acquire more bitcoins, although several options have been named. 

In a recent interview with Professional Capital Management CEO Anthony Pompliano, the President of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, Bo Hines mentioned two methods that were actively discussed by the officials. Let’s dive deeper into what he said and name other ideas on how the U.S. could acquire more bitcoins.

What Hines said?

A video clip of Hines’ interview with Pompliano emerged on the Internet on Apr. 14, 2025. In the clip, Hines mentions two legitimate avenues for the U.S. to increase its bitcoin holdings.

Hines began by mentioning the Bitcoin Act introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis. He said that the act “has taken the community by storm.” He added that “that’s currently circulating its way through Capitol Hill” and that the supporters are looking for co-sponsors to help the act come to fruition. 

Sen. Lummis and Rep. Nick Begich introduced the Bitcoin Act on Mar. 11. The act enables the U.S. to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve similar to the gold reserves and formally recognize Bitcoin as a strategic national asset. The act suggests that the U.S. must acquire one million bitcoins in five years using budget-neutral ways, including Federal Reserve remittances and gold certificate revaluations.

In an interview, Hines emphasized the latter way of increasing the national BTC holdings. He explains that currently, most of the gold certificates in the U.S. Treasury are valued at $43 per ounce, while the current gold price exceeds $3,000. The Treasury Secretary may issue new certificates that reflect the fair market value of gold, not just a statutory price of gold certificates. Hines says that the U.S. can use “that extra funding” to buy more BTC. 

The actual statutory gold certificate price is set at $42.2 per troy ounce. Craig Hemke of Sprott Money has been critical of the gold revaluation strategy, dismissing it as an “accounting gimmick that enables the U.S. Treasury to create a trillion dollars from nothing while not impacting the net deficit of the current balance sheet.” Hemke noted that by adding $1 trillion to the asset side while simultaneously adding $1 trillion to the liabilities side, the only result is the dollar devaluation, driving the gold price higher.

However, a weak dollar is something Trump needs, so the U.S. may boost exports and bring back manufacturers from abroad. More than that, inflation usually results in a stronger Bitcoin performance. Given that, the gold certificate revaluation may result in exactly what the current administration aims for, even aside from finding money to buy Bitcoin.

The gold certificates revaluation isn’t the only way to fund the SBR. Hines mentioned one more method that wasn’t outlined before, the revenue from tariffs. According to research by the Tax Foundation, a 10% universal tariff may bring $2.2 trillion in nine years, while a 20% tariff would raise $3.4 trillion during the same period. The negative macroeconomic feedback may decrease these figures. 

Acquiring one million bitcoins at the current price takes much less than one trillion dollars. So, both the revenue from tariffs and the gold certificate revaluation seem to be efficient enough. These two methods are not the only. Hines admits there are countless possible ways to grow the SBR without spending taxpayers’ money. 

“Everything’s on the table. And like we’ve said, we want as much as we can get. So we’re going to make sure that no stone is unturned as we start fleshing out some of these processes.”

Other options 

Other options brought up by various experts include establishing Bitcoin bonds and using the Exchange Stabilization Fund surplus to buy BTC.

Selling surplus from Exchange Stabilization Fund and Special Drawing Rights, which is an accounting maneuver similar to gold certificate revaluation. Selling this surplus doesn’t need Congress’s approval. It may give the government between $39 and $40 billion to spend on Bitcoin without much hassle.

Bitcoin Policy Institute introduced Bitcoin bonds, or BitBonds. Investors will have a fixed 1% annual interest paid in USD. 90% of the money obtained via BitBonds sales will fund the government, while the rest of the money may be used to buy more bitcoins for the SBR.

Accounting issues

The approximately 200,000 BTC stockpile existing in the U.S. now consists of bitcoins collected through seizures. Accounting of bitcoins held by the U.S. agencies should have been done within 30 days after the adoption of the SBR on Mar. 6, 2025. However, it is still unknown if the audit took place and what the results are. 

Pompliano has been criticized online for not bringing up the audit issue during the White House interview with Bo Hines, with some dismissing Pompliano as a Trump administration shill.