[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Roswell, New Mexico, is running an ordinance that prevents the city from selling a bitcoin reserve built through donations for at least 10 years. Roswell, known as a UFO city, has drawn market attention by rolling out a long-term bitcoin reserve model.

According to blockchain media outlet Cryptopolitan on May 26, the city of Roswell's bitcoin reserve currently totals 0.173 BTC. Its market-value assessment was tallied at about $13,312.

The reserve was not purchased directly by the local government but was built through donations. The first seed donation was made on April 29, 2025, when about 0.0305 BTC was deposited. Subsequent anonymous donations followed, growing the reserve to its current size. Some deposit addresses were analyzed as being linked to ordinary personal wallets and services such as Robinhood.

On-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence disclosed the wallet and made a joking remark that "aliens are buying bitcoin." Roswell is known for a 1947 incident in which the U.S. Army Air Forces announced it had secured a "flying disc." The military later reversed course and said it was a weather balloon, but Roswell is still seen as a symbol of UFO conspiracy theories.

Market interest is focused less on the buzz and more on how the reserve is managed. The Roswell ordinance requires all bitcoin donations to be held for at least 10 years. It effectively blocks sales for short-term profit-taking or to plug budget gaps. Even if the reserve value exceeds $1 million, the annual spending limit is capped at within 21 percent of the total. Actual spending is also allowed only once every five years. The structure is designed to run the reserve in effect as a long-term strategic asset.

Its use is also restricted. Roswell said the reserve can be used only to support water bills for older residents and as funding for disaster relief. It effectively underscored the fund's public-purpose character rather than treating it as a speculative asset.

So far, no outflows have been confirmed from the wallet. Based on Arkham's dashboard, the balance has steadily increased since mid-2025, and a recent rise in its assessed value was analyzed as being driven more by bitcoin price gains than by additional purchases by the city.

In the community, the pairing of Roswell's symbolism with bitcoin has also been consumed like a meme. Some users offered joking reactions such as, "Could it be that the aliens who visited Roswell in 1947 came back and even diversified into bitcoin?" Turkish crypto analyst Coinderisi said, "It is only donated coins, but it has already become a community meme."

At the same time, the U.S. government's investigative momentum on UFOs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), is again drawing attention. The U.S. Defense Department set up the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in 2022 and said in a report released in 2024 that it found no empirical evidence proving an extraterrestrial origin or reverse engineering of alien spacecraft.

U.S. President Donald Trump also ordered government agencies early this year to declassify UFO-related materials, after which the Pentagon released additional related documents and videos. Against that backdrop, Roswell's bitcoin reserve is drawing market attention as a local government's digital asset holding and as a case combining memes and policy.