Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Invest, predicts that the Trump administration may start buying Bitcoin to build the U.S. strategic reserve, rather than just holding seized Bitcoin, a change she argued could be a catalyst for markets and other governments.
Speaking on ARK’s “Bitcoin Brainstorming” Podcast episode Wood stated on January 8, 2008 that government purchases could be a potential tipping point, as he believes that institutional participation is still “in its infancy” and that Bitcoin’s supply dynamics can no longer be ignored.
“We’ve seen very little buy-in from institutional investors and it’s early days,” Wood said. “And I think if they got the US, for example, they would buy the confiscated Bitcoins outside instead of adding them to their strategic reserves. I don’t know if that will happen. But I feel like if they do that, it’s going to trigger what we’re all waiting for, which is a reassertion of scarcity value now that there are close to 20 million Bitcoins outstanding and only 1 million Bitcoins left.”
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During the debate, Wood suggested that the administration’s stance so far has been effectively limited to forfeited holdings. She contrasted this with what she previously described as an ambition to scale, noting that “the original goal was to own 1 million bitcoins,” before adding that a pivot to buying was plausible.
Midterm elections could prompt buying of US Bitcoin reserves
Wood linked that possibility to political motivations ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, explaining that Trump has an incentive to maintain momentum and avoid being left on the political back burner. “President Trump doesn’t want to be a lame duck,” she said. “So I feel like he’s going to work on his own terms.” Cryptocurrency and AI Emperor To do some things… (and) there seems to be a reluctance to actually buy Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. So far, it’s been confiscated so far…so I think they’ll actually start buying. ”
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Wood also noted that he believes there is a consensus among the president’s base, claiming there is “every reason” for the president to lean toward cryptocurrencies. political calculation The medium-term timeline is important.
When the conversation turned to how such purchases could be made, Wood reiterated the idea that any reserve strategy is valid. Must be budget neutral. Although she did not outline the mechanism, she treated constraints as an important factor in determining feasibility.
Mr. Wood argued that blatant purchases by the United States were not just a domestic market phenomenon. It could force other capitals to reconsider their reserve policies. “This is really important… We thought countries would introduce it much sooner than they are now,” she said. “If the US actually says, ‘Okay, I’m going to buy it now,’ I think a lot of other governments will start thinking about this as well. Do they want to be hostage to the dollar…? And you know, they don’t. So let’s keep Bitcoin in reserves.”
If this movement accelerates, emerging market currencies could face new pressures, Wood warned, describing a scenario in which the diversification of foreign exchange reserves into Bitcoin reshapes the volatility of a weaker fiat currency system overall, with the downstream effect suggesting that the U.S. government for the first time openly moves away from its seized Bitcoin holdings to compete on the open market.
At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $90,578.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
