Federal Bitcoin reserve balance remains disputed a year after Trump order

More than a year after President Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025, the federal government has not published a reconciled account of how much Bitcoin it actually holds. Estimates from trackers range from about 198,000 to roughly 328,000 BTC, a gap worth billions of dollars at current prices.

The order required agencies to report their digital asset holdings to Treasury within 30 days and directed Treasury to determine within 60 days how reserve accounts should be managed, with most deposited Bitcoin not to be sold except under specific legal exceptions such as court rulings or victim restitution.

Much of the increase in estimated holdings traces to a Justice Department forfeiture action announced in October 2025 involving about 127,271 BTC linked to Chen Zhi, founder of Cambodia's Prince Group, in what prosecutors called the largest forfeiture action in the department's history. However, a forfeiture complaint only begins a legal proceeding and does not constitute final government ownership, meaning seized coins can appear in tracker totals well before they are legally eligible for the reserve.

Separately, more than 94,000 BTC recovered from the 2016 Bitfinex hack remain tied to a disputed proceeding over restitution and victim claims, illustrating how blockchain records can show custody without establishing legal title to the assets.

Read the full story at cryptoslate.com.