White House Explores Bitcoin (BTC) Buys Funded by Fort Knox Gold Revalued From $42 an Ounce

Bitcoin Recast as a Security Asset

Washington has moved Bitcoin (BTC) from the edge of its asset ledger onto the line reserved for national security. Patrick Witt, the White House official in charge of digital asset policy, said in a podcast interview that aired Monday, October 12, that the administration now manages Bitcoin as part of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and is weighing ways to enlarge the government's holdings. The conversation, recorded for The Lark Davis Show, set out how the state intends to protect the coins it already controls and how it could add more without asking Congress for a single appropriated dollar. Witt tied the policy to sovereignty itself: when a government loses control of its currency, or a debt crisis strikes, he argued, the damage reaches national security rather than the budget alone. He called Bitcoin a proven store of value and a defense against inflation, pointing to swings in 10-year Treasury yields as evidence. That case runs parallel to the one Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan makes when he backs a 10% crypto allocation to hedge currency debasement. The goal, in his telling, is a reserve the state builds deliberately, not one assembled by accident from court seizures. The framing lifts the coin beyond an economic instrument and onto the sovereign balance sheet, where Bitcoin (BTC) now sits beside gold as a state holding. Where earlier administrations liquidated seized crypto at whatever the market paid, Witt said this administration intends to manage those holdings strategically and keep them, in effect a state-scale HODL. Trump's signature on the relevant executive order set both tracks in motion, he added: securing custody of the assets the government already holds, and growing the reserve. The Bitcoin price sits near $83,780, down 0.4% over the past 24 hours, as the remarks circulated.

The push follows an uncomfortable look at the government's own housekeeping. Witt said crypto seized in past cases had at times been left on USB drives inside office drawers, where a single stick could carry billions of dollars in value. Since taking on the file, he has started asset audits and an overhaul of custody arrangements. He also cited a case from earlier this year in which a contractor working for the US Marshals Service leaked seized assets without authorization, a breach he used to argue for government-wide security upgrades. The episode, he argued, shows why custody, not acquisition, is the first test of a state that holds digital assets. Money is the harder constraint. Congress controls appropriations, so the state cannot simply buy Bitcoin (BTC) on the open market. Witt laid out routes around that: collecting tariff payments and federal fees in Bitcoin, and running crypto mining powered by small modular reactors on military bases. Bitcoin's proof-of-work design means the state could, in principle, mint its own reserve additions from electricity it already controls. None of those routes requires a line item in a federal budget. A Fort Knox gold revaluation is also on the table. The Treasury still carries gold on its books at $42 an ounce; marking it to market would generate a surplus in the general account. Witt said the mechanism falls to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but that using the revaluation gap to fund Bitcoin purchases is being tested for legal validity, a step the United States has taken twice before. On quantum computing, Witt dismissed market fears as excessive. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, he said, is drawing up post-quantum encryption standards against a Q-Day that has moved inside a ten-year window, and he expects blockchain protocols to adopt them before bank accounts or telecom networks do.

The Tape at $83,780

The market has not repriced the announcement yet. Composite scoring behind our Bitcoin technical analysis puts the nearest resistance at $84,337, scored 85 out of 100, and the strongest support at $80,947, scored 95. Spot held near $83,780 in early Tuesday trade, 0.4% lower over 24 hours. Perpetual funding of 0.0051% and open interest near $15.6 billion leave leverage close to neutral, so positioning does not yet price a policy bid. Private large holders still trade the range: one whale that held through the 2020 crash moved $377.6 million in Bitcoin recently, where the state's stated posture is to accumulate and hold. A daily close above $84,337 would change the picture, and so would a break of $80,947.