Former White House Crypto Council executive director Patrick Witt said Trump is interested in the U.S. government acquiring Bitcoin, and that officials have already discussed specific methods at length. He also said the legality of buying directly in the open market is in doubt. Foresight News reported the comments on November 11, 2026, from Witt’s interview on the What Bitcoin Did podcast. The outlet notes that the episode was recorded before the U.S. midterm elections and that the video was published on November 10.
Congressional authority and a statutory reserve
Witt said the government would need authorization from Congress to be sure a Bitcoin purchase is legal. In his account, the government’s position is to push for a strategic Bitcoin reserve to be written into law. He added that, with Congress divided, passing a standalone bill would be very difficult.
That difficulty is Witt’s political assessment as relayed by Foresight News. The report does not include bill text, vote counts, sponsors, or a legislative timetable.
Paths discussed at the Treasury
Witt said routes the Treasury has discussed include:
- Revaluing gold reserves
- Using the Exchange Stabilization Fund
- Converting other assets on the balance sheet into Bitcoin
- Collecting taxes and fees in Bitcoin
He said each option still requires further legal argument. Whether any path advances, he said, ultimately depends on whether Treasury Secretary Bessent is willing to pursue it.
Audits, disclosure, and custody
Witt said earlier audits of Bitcoin held by government agencies produced uneven results. A second round of checks is underway to improve the precision of the data. A decision on whether to publish specific holding amounts has not been made.
He described prior agency custody practices as “unbelievable.” Some cold wallets, he said, were kept in drawers, and Bitcoin belonging to the U.S. Marshals was once stolen by a contractor’s son. The Treasury is building a custody system and may combine self-custody with third-party custody. The report gives no quantities, wallet counts, or completion date for that system.
The White House crypto post
Witt said that, as he understands it, no one will succeed him as executive director of the White House Crypto Council. Related duties would be shared by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, the White House Counsel’s Office, and other departments.
What the interview does and does not establish
The mechanism Witt describes is legal and administrative, not a disclosed market order. On his account, a government Bitcoin purchase would require either congressional authorization or a Treasury route that survives further legal review and that Secretary Bessent chooses to advance. He treats a standalone reserve bill as very difficult while Congress is divided, and he treats open-market buying without authority as legally doubtful.
Those same conditions limit the inference. If Congress does not authorize a purchase, if Bessent does not advance one of the discussed routes, or if the legal analysis does not support them, the interview does not establish that the government will buy Bitcoin. The second audit may refine figures on existing holdings, but Witt said publication of those amounts is still undecided, so the report does not fix the size of current government exposure. Spreading the former council role across other White House offices is, in his telling, an organizational change; the source does not say that change speeds or blocks a reserve.
The report states no purchase size, probability, price level, or horizon beyond the recording and publication timing noted above. This article does not add any.
Original report: Foresight News, November 11, 2026, 17:49 UTC+8. The interview video was published on November 10, and Foresight News says the recording predates the U.S. midterm elections. This article is a later English rewrite of that report, not a new announcement of the interview.
