[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] The U.S. Treasury (USDT) has added PayPal and Venmo payments to a voluntary donation channel aimed at reducing the national debt.

On April 26 local time, blockchain outlet BeInCrypto reported the move came as a strategic bitcoin reserve bill targeting the same fiscal issue remains stalled in Congress.

The Treasury operates a Pay.gov form that allows the public to make donations to reduce the national debt. The program has been in place since 1961, and cumulative donations received under the name "Donations to Reduce the Public Debt" total about $67 million since 1996. Inflows in February 2026 were about $30,000.

Even so, the donation 규모 is minimal compared with the U.S. fiscal burden. Average monthly donations are about $120,000, while total U.S. debt stands at $39 trillion. Interest costs alone are about $88 billion a month, far exceeding voluntary donation inflows.

In U.S. politics, separate austerity proposals are also being discussed. Senator Rand Paul (랜드 폴) is pushing the "Six Penny Plan" to cut 6 cents for every $1 of federal spending over the next 5 years. "The solution to the debt crisis is not complicated," he said. "Cut 6 cents out of every dollar and achieve a balanced budget within 5 years to protect our children's future," he added. "What stands in the way is Washington refusing to live within its financial means," he said.

In the cryptocurrency industry, some are presenting a government-level bitcoin reserve as an alternative to such donation-based approaches. The 2025 "BITCOIN Act," introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis (신시아 루미스), calls for purchasing 1 million bitcoins over the next 5 years in a budget-neutral way.

Asset manager VanEck forecast a strategic bitcoin reserve could cut U.S. debt by 36 percent by 2050. VanEck said that if the current $900 trillion in global financial assets increases at a 7.0 percent annual compound rate from 2025 to 2049, bitcoin would account for 18 percent of global financial assets under this scenario. The bill is currently stuck at the standing committee stage. Lummis has said she will not seek re-election in December 2025.

President Donald Trump has created, on paper, a reserve framework in the form of using seized coins through an executive order. But the actual operating deadline has already passed, and Congress did not allocate a budget for additional purchases. The companion "Made in America" bill includes provisions to codify this framework.

As a result, U.S. taxpayers face two contrasting options. On one side are voluntary digital donations through PayPal and Venmo. On the other is a legislative idea to build a national reserve of bitcoin, which has a fixed supply, but it has yet to move into an institutionalised stage.