🪙 Is It Time To Grow The U.S. Bitcoin Reserve?

Letter From The Editor
Introducing the newly rebranded The Business Behind The News newsletter. Creating a brand and growing it is hard. I’ve been creating and launching new brands for over 20 years, and it’s definitely more art than science. After a career in the startup world this is my newest baby, and I couldn’t be more proud of the look, feel, and substance of this newsletter. I hope you’ll enjoy the same great content, while we continue to bring you the business behind the news, with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

Enjoy!

In today’s newsletter I ask the question “Is it time to grow the U.S. Bitcoin Reserve? (you can guess what I think, or you can read it below), Goldman Sachs is buying the VC firm Industry Ventures, “Bridgerton” Season 4 is coming soon, Taylor Swift is dropping a six-episode docuseries on Disney+, Walmart is partnering with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to Instant Checkout, Apple TV+ is rebranding as just Apple TV (without the + sign = groundbreaking branding choice!), and the Formula 1 MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix 2025 will be held at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Go Piastri!

Scroll on!

YouTube

Top Story

🪙 Is It Time To Grow The U.S. Bitcoin Reserve?

It’s time we talk more seriously about the United States' national Bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin recently hit an all-time high of $126,223 on October 5, 2025. The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, as it is called, was formally established on March 6, 2025, when President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order titled "Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile." Prior to this executive order, the U.S. government already held a massive 200,000 Bitcoin that had been seized from criminal activities, but this action formalized a policy to treat Bitcoin as a strategic national reserve asset and consolidate those holdings. It would be almost criminal if the U.S. didn’t put in place a funding mechanism to grow the Bitcoin reserve through both confiscations and investing a percentage of tax revenue that the government takes in each year. Some have even floated the idea of using revenue from tariffs (ok, that was my idea, but I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of that).

Just this week, the Department of Justice announced the seizure of a record-breaking $15 billion in Bitcoin tied to a massive alleged "pig butchering" scam.

But hold up! I can hear you asking yourself: "What’s a 'pig butchering' scam?” I know I had to look it up.

Turns out, no actual pigs are murdered in these scams.

A "pig butchering" scam (which is a Chinese phrase that translates literally as "killing pig plate") is a sophisticated and long-term form of investment fraud, often involving cryptocurrency, where the fraudster cultivates a relationship with the victim before stealing their assets.

The term comes from the idea of "fattening up the pig" before the "slaughter," meaning the scammer spends weeks or months building trust and emotional investment before convincing the victim to invest a large amount of money on a fake platform, which they then steal.

Enough about pigs and scams, unless you’re a part of the minority of people who still believe crypto is a scam instead of being one of the fastest growing asset classes in the world.

The value of the United States government's Bitcoin holdings is in constant flux due to the volatility of the asset's price, and the total figure is a dynamic number because of ongoing seizures, occasional sales, and the returning of Bitcoin to their rightful owners when legal cases are concluded. Following the record-breaking $15 billion seizure from the massive "pig butchering" scam, the total estimated Bitcoin holdings of the U.S. government have ballooned to approximately $37.1 billion worth of Bitcoin. Prior to this major seizure, on-chain data and expert analysis had estimated the government's stash to be around 197,354 BTC, valued at roughly $22.1 billion at the time of that calculation. The subsequent seizure of approximately 127,000 BTC, valued at $15 billion, pushed the total amount of Bitcoin held to over 324,354 BTC. This now puts the U.S. in the lead for having the largest Bitcoin reserve in the world.

A primary source for establishing a Bitcoin reserve is the direct contribution of criminally seized assets. Federal agencies routinely confiscate massive amounts of Bitcoin. For instance, in November 2022, the Department of Justice announced the seizure of $3.36 billion in Bitcoin from James Zhong of Gainesville, Georgia, which was linked to the defunct Silk Road marketplace. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams described this recovery as a massive chunk of missing Bitcoin. This followed what was the largest seizure at the time in February 2022 of more than $3.6 billion linked to the 2016 hack of the Bitfinex exchange. The old policy was to liquidate seized Bitcoin at the end of a trial, but going forward, these Bitcoins could be contributed to our new Bitcoin reserve.

While seized assets would be the foundation of a Bitcoin reserve, the reserve could be formally funded through other means to achieve a target size, such as a hypothetical $100 billion goal.

I made that figure up, but it sounds like an ambitious enough goal to work towards.

The Treasury Department could issue a Digital Asset Backed Bond, raising United States dollars that are then used to purchase Bitcoin in a controlled way so as not to cause the price to skyrocket. Bitcoin could also be purchased using funding from the federal government’s general fund as a line item in the yearly budget that Congress passes (or doesn’t pass, as of the timing of this article). Congress could for example allocate, say, $10 billion over five fiscal years starting in 2026. Mechanically, the reserve's holdings would require a high-security custody solution, likely a mix of cold storage and Multi-Party Computation protocols, managed by a dedicated sub-division within the Treasury to protect this national wealth from loss or cyber attack. Or the U.S. government could hire third-party companies like Coinbase or Gemini to act as custodians of the Bitcoin reserve.

Ignoring the rise of Bitcoin means missing out on a new financial frontier, especially when the government is already collecting billions of dollars' worth of it every year. The conversation needs to shift from whether Bitcoin is real to how the United States will use its growing digital arsenal.

Creating an official Bitcoin reserve comes with significant trade-offs. On the pro side, it would signal the United States' commitment to innovation, allowing the U.S. to hedge against potential dollar devaluation while securing a strategic position in a globally recognized digital commodity. A reserve would give the U.S. a powerful seat at the table in future international discussions about the digital economy. On the con side, we have to take into consideration the high volatility of Bitcoin, which could lead to billions of dollars in losses depending on market swings. It also legitimizes an asset that some lawmakers view as purely speculative. Then there’s the operational security costs of maintaining a multi-billion dollar digital wallet, which would be enormous and require a continuous investment of millions of dollars annually to prevent security breaches.

The United States government is already a major holder of Bitcoin through its law enforcement operations. By funneling these holdings into the Bitcoin reserve, the U.S. moves from a passive custodian to an active strategist in the global digital economy.

Quick Hits

💰 Business

Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm with $7 billion dollars in investments. The investment bank will pay $665 million dollars in cash and equity, with up to an additional $300 million dollars contingent on future performance through 2030. Some of Industry Venture’s most successful investments include startups like Uber, Airbnb, and DoorDash.

📺 Entertainment

Fans of “Bridgerton” won’t have to wait much longer, because it’s dropping in two parts on January 29, 2026, and February 26, 2026. This Season 4 will focus on Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton and Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek. Each episode of “Bridgerton” costs an estimated $7 million dollars, and after this fourth season Netflix's total investment for all four seasons amounts to approximately $224 million dollars. WoW! Who knew period dramas were so expensive?

🤖 AI

Walmart partnered with OpenAI to integrate an Instant Checkout feature into the ChatGPT, letting shoppers buy items directly through the AI chatbot. What could possibly go wrong?

🍿 Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift announced the six-episode docuseries “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The End of an Era” and the concert film “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show”, both premiering on Disney+ on December 12. The original “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film earned $267.1 million dollars globally, and the entire 149-show tour generated over $2 billion dollars in ticket sales. Her ability to keep repackaging the same tour content and make additional boatloads of money is beyond impressive!

🍎 Streaming

Apple TV+ is rebranding its six-year-old streaming platform by dropping the plus sign and becoming just "Apple TV", but not to be confused with their smart television device that is also named "Apple TV". Great rebranding Apple (heavy on the sarcasm)!

🏁 Sports

Formula 1 fans (me!) are excited about this weekend’s Formula 1 MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix 2025 will be held at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, from Friday, October 17, to Sunday, October 19. The race could be a big deciding factor in the Drivers' Championship battle where Oscar Piastri, with 336 points, who’s leading his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who has 314 points, by a margin of 22 points. Can’t wait!

Was this email forwarded to you? Did you not hate it?

Then consider subscribing to The Business Behind The News. The only newsletter that brings you the business behind the news, with a healthy dose of sarcasm - all delivered to your inbox once a week in an easily digestible 5-minute read.

The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.