CNBC host Jim Cramer speculated that the government might buy bitcoin at $60,000, but the government reserve doesn’t exist, yet. The markets sought to figure out a rumor shared by CNBC’s Jim Cramer that President Donald Trump would start filling his bitcoin reserve if the asset drops to $60,000. Trump administration officials have said the government isn’t planning on spending taxpayer funds to buy crypto, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that he has no authority to bail out bitcoin. There is no mechanism in the federal government for the wholesale purchase of crypto.
The president did order a ‘strategic reserve’ established to hold bitcoin, but that didn’t make it spring into existence. The Treasury Department and crypto advisers spent months auditing the federal holdings of crypto. But the process hit a snag: The advocates said they still need Congress to establish the stockpile under law. Jim Cramer suggested on-air that Trump has a plan, saying, “I heard at 60 he’s going to fill the bitcoin reserve.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the weekend speculation. The government’s current bitcoin holding may hover around $23 billion, according to data from Arkham Intelligence on U.S.-associated wallets. Some ideas have been floated by Trump’s advisers and by lawmakers such as Senator Cynthia Lummis for how the feds could buy bitcoin without tapping taxpayers, but no solutions have yet been chosen. And Lummis’ legislative efforts to enact the reserve haven’t advanced, even as her Senate tenure dwindles after her announcement she’ll retire after this year.
During congressional hearings last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked whether the government was in a position to bail out bitcoin, and Bessent said he had no such authority. More specifically, though, he said he can’t order U.S. bankers to start buying up crypto. For government purchases, the industry may be better off looking toward states at the moment. Several state governments pursued bitcoin reserve authorities last year and have been more nimble than the federal government in setting up pockets of their budgets meant for digital assets.
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