White House-appointed ‘AI and Crypto Czar' David Sacks revealed that President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin BTC/USD Reserve on Thursday, a move that will not cost taxpayers.

What Happened: In an X post, Sacks stated that the reserve will be funded with Bitcoin owned by the federal government, obtained through criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. “This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime,” he added. The U.S. government is estimated to own about 200,000 bitcoin, but a complete audit has never been conducted. The Executive Order directs a full accounting of the government’s digital asset holdings. The reserve is worth approximately $17 billion at prevailing price for the apex cryptocurrency.

According to Sacks, the U.S. will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve, instead keeping it as a store of value. He likened the Reserve to a “digital Fort Knox” for the cryptocurrency often referred to as “digital gold.”

See Also: Microsoft May Have Given Bitcoin Investments A Miss But A Large MSFT Stock Holder Is A Strong Crypto, Blockchain Advocate

“The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies have no incremental costs on American taxpayers,” Sacks mentioned.

Additionally, the Order establishes a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, consisting of digital assets other than Bitcoin that were forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings.

“Very good. I made the promise, right,” Trump said in a video released by Margo Martin, special assistant to the president.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $86,652.93, down 3.84% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Aniket Verma