The White House Teased It. Here's What They're About to Say.
At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas on April 28, Patrick Witt stood in front of 10,000 attendees and promised something specific: a "major update" on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve within weeks.
Witt is the executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. His job is execution, not hype.
The current situation: the federal government holds roughly 200,000 Bitcoin seized from criminal and civil forfeitures. Trump's March 2025 executive order consolidated those holdings into a single Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. That's already done. What Witt is signaling is what comes next.
Three possible forms the announcement could take:
- A Treasury operational framework -- detailed procedures for how the reserve is managed, secured, and reported. Administrative, not legislative. Moves immediately.
- An expanded executive directive -- a follow-on order clarifying acquisition strategy, potentially invoking existing budget authorities to begin buying. Bypasses Congress short-term.
- A pathway for ARMA -- the American Reserves Modernization Act targets 1 million Bitcoin over five years via budget-neutral strategies. An announcement here would accelerate Senate action.
The key distinction matters: executive orders are reversible the day a new president takes office. ARMA, codified into statute, is permanent.
Germany held 50,000 BTC and sold it all in 2024 for $3.5 billion. They regret it. A statute prevents that mistake from being repeated in America. Polymarket gives ARMA passage 23% odds -- but the White House announcement could shift that math fast.