Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: US Should Take ‘Worldwide Lead in Crypto’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday (March 7) that he is a “big proponent of the U.S. taking the worldwide lead in crypto.”

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bessent said the U.S. needs to bring cryptocurrency onshore and use the country’s best practices and regulation.

Bessent said this a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a United States Digital Asset Stockpile.

Speaking with CNBC on Friday, Bessent said these entities were established to stop the selling of digital assets that have been seized by the government, as has been done in the past, and to keep them in these reserves.

“And then we’ll see what the way forward is for more acquisitions for the reserves,” Bessent said. “We’re starting with bitcoin, but it’s an overall crypto reserve.”

Bessent added that the administration will talk about the way forward at the crypto summit set to be held Friday at the White House.

White House Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar David Sacks announced Trump’s order establishing the digital asset reserves in a Thursday (March 6) post on X.

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will be capitalized with bitcoin seized in criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings and owned by the federal government, so it “will not cost taxpayers a dime,” while the United States Digital Asset Stockpile will consist of digital assets other than bitcoin that have been forfeited in criminal or civil proceedings, Sacks said.

The executive order authorizes the secretaries of Treasury and Commerce to develop “budget-neutral strategies” for acquiring additional bitcoin at no incremental cost to taxpayers, according to the post.

The government will not acquire additional assets for the United States Digital Asset Stockpile, per the post.

It was reported Thursday that the White House Digital Assets Summit set for Friday may include Trump’s announcement of several executive actions related to crypto, possibly including one changing the tax treatment of crypto.

The event is expected to bring together more than two dozen cryptocurrency industry leaders invited by Trump, as well as Sacks and the director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, Bo Hines.

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