Trump’s Bitcoin reserve can’t buy Bitcoin without Congress, says Witt

Witt made these comments during a podcast on November 9, 2026, and his remarks place a firm legal ceiling on the idea of the federal government acting as a steady, deep-pocketed buyer of the cryptocurrency.

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was created by Executive Order 14233 on March 6, 2025. Its design centers on holding Bitcoin the government obtains through federal forfeitures, not coins it buys.

To date, no open-market purchases have taken place. Estimates of the government’s Bitcoin holdings range from 200,000 to 328,000 BTC, gathered mainly through seizures.

Legal obstacles and the NDAA rider

The obstacle is a rider attached to the National Defense Authorization Act. That provision means open-market purchases would require Congress to sign off explicitly, and it raises questions about whether buying without that approval would be legal at all.

Witt also pointed to the political difficulty of making the reserve permanent in a divided Congress. The core problem is durability.

An executive order can be undone by the next administration with the stroke of a pen. A reserve built on that foundation is only as stable as the next election result.

Legislative efforts and budget-neutral options

There is legislation moving that touches the reserve. The American Reserve Modernization Act, H.R. 8957, cleared the House Financial Services Committee on September 16, 2026.

The vote was 28-21, split along partisan lines. The bill’s focus is largely operational. It deals with custody, sets a 20-year holding period for Bitcoin, and requires annual transparency reporting.

Still, the measure has not passed the full House or the Senate. Final authority over the reserve’s future rests with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

For now, the work underway is concentrated on custody infrastructure and legal compliance rather than new acquisitions. The budget-neutral options floated so far include gold revaluation and asset conversions.

Market signals and the path forward

For investors, Witt’s remarks recalibrate a widely held expectation. The idea of Washington as an active Bitcoin buyer has circulated since the reserve was announced, but the legal path to that outcome runs straight through Capitol Hill.

The signals worth tracking are fairly clear. The first is whether H.R. 8957 gets a floor vote in the House and what form it takes if it does.

The second is whether Treasury, under Bessent, advances any of the budget-neutral paths beyond review. Movement on gold revaluation or asset conversions would be the first concrete sign that acquisition is back on the table.

The third is whether lawmakers address the NDAA rider directly. Explicit authorization for purchases would be a far bigger step than anything currently in H.R. 8957, which centers on custody and holding rules.

There’s also the long-term political risk Witt flagged. If the reserve remains anchored only to an executive order, any future administration could reshape or dissolve it.