US Treasury’s Bessent backpedals: Bitcoin buying still possible

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified that the department was exploring budget-neutral ways to buy Bitcoin, contradicting an earlier comment that tanked the market.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified that his department was still exploring budget-neutral ways to buy Bitcoin for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, in contrast with a recent comment suggesting it was off the table, which triggered a Bitcoin sell-off.

“Treasury is committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways to acquire more Bitcoin to expand the reserve, and to execute on the President’s promise to make the United States the ‘Bitcoin superpower of the world,’” Bessent clarified in an X post on Thursday. 

He reiterated that Bitcoin (BTC) forfeited to the federal government would form the reserve’s foundation.

There were already concerns voiced that the US’s slow pace of executing its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve could leave it open to being front-run by other nation-states. Some feared that the Treasury may not even follow through on the strategy.

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