Former White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt says President Donald Trump is still interested in buying bitcoin for the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Witt says open-market purchases face a legal problem, and a divided Congress makes a fix harder.
Patrick Witt, who stepped down as executive director of the White House crypto council in October, said Trump remains interested in buying bitcoin for the reserve. Speaking on the What Bitcoin Did podcast, Witt said: "I can tell you the president's interested in it."
A congressional rider blocks outright purchases
A March 2025 executive order created the reserve, pooling bitcoin the government had already seized. It told the Treasury and Commerce departments to find budget-neutral acquisition strategies. No such strategy has been made public, and no open-market purchase has been announced.
Witt called the legality of outright open-market purchases questionable because Congress controls federal spending. He said such concerns led Congress to put a rider in the National Defense Authorization Act that bars the purchases. Witt added that he and his colleagues are trying to reach a place where buying is permitted and the authority is granted.
Democrats' midterm wins complicate legislation
Witt said making the reserve permanent will be hard, and that passing a standalone bill with a divided Congress would be incredibly difficult. He also said he would struggle to imagine Democrats passing such a measure. Without legislation, he warned, the reserve rests on executive orders that a future president could reverse.
The interview came days after the Nov. 3 midterms, in which Democrats won both chambers of Congress. Bitcoin.com News reported that Elizabeth Warren is set to chair the Senate Banking Committee, and the CLARITY Act is stalled in the Senate.
What it means for bitcoin traders
Bitcoin was trading near $73,600 on Nov. 11, after crashing to $72,787 on a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer price index (CPI) print. The CPI data pushed rate markets toward pricing in a December Federal Reserve hike.
Bitcoin.com News listed the signs to watch: any Treasury guidance on budget-neutral acquisition methods, the fate of the NDAA rider in the next defense bill, and whether a lame-duck Congress takes up digital asset legislation before Democrats take control in January.
Source: Bitcoin News
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