Bitcoin sinks after Trump’s executive order disappoints market

The order authorizes the secretaries of Treasury and commerce to develop “budget-neutral strategies” for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided there is no incremental cost to American taxpayers

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to set up a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a stockpile of other digital assets, according to a post on X by White House crypto czar David Sacks.

Bitcoin and other tokens fell as Sacks said that taxpayer money would not be spent to acquire cryptocurrencies for either.

The reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin already owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil proceedings and the US will not sell any of the cryptocurrency deposited into it, Sacks said in the post. The order authorizes the secretaries of Treasury and commerce to develop “budget-neutral strategies” for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided there is no incremental cost to American taxpayers, Sacks wrote.

The same executive order establishes another stockpile consisting of other digital assets other than Bitcoin, Sacks added.

“The government will not acquire additional assets for the Stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings,” Sacks said in his post, putting to rest speculation about whether the government would buy crypto.

Bitcoin sank about 4% to trade around $86,000 at 8:10 p.m. New York time Thursday. Four other tokens that Trump had said he wanted to include in the US reserve — XRP, Ether SOL and ADA — also slumped at least 3.5%