The US government’s Bitcoin stash was worth $40.7 billion in October 2025. Today it sits at roughly $20.8 billion. That’s not a typo, and it’s not because anyone sold anything.
The entire decline, nearly $20 billion in evaporated value, comes down to one thing: Bitcoin’s price tanked. The government’s approximately 328,000 BTC haven’t moved. They’re locked in a reserve that, by executive order, cannot be liquidated.
How the reserve got this big
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve traces back to an executive order signed on March 6, 2025, which formalized the government’s approach to managing seized crypto. Before that order, forfeited Bitcoin from law enforcement actions sat in a bureaucratic gray zone. The executive order changed the game by declaring these assets strategic reserves, not to be sold.
The holdings got a massive boost in October 2025 when the Department of Justice completed a record seizure of 127,271 BTC, valued at approximately $14 billion at the time. That single haul temporarily pushed total government holdings above $36 billion and helped the stash reach its $40.7 billion peak.
