The U.S. Treasury has officially confirmed it is continuing to push ahead with plans for a strategic bitcoin reserve and a digital-asset stockpile.

On June 3, local time, blockchain outlet Cointelegraph reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (스콧 베센트) told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that procedures are moving quickly under an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025.

At a hearing on the Treasury's fiscal 2027 budget, Bessent said the department is moving quickly to build the bitcoin reserve plan. He described the strategic bitcoin reserve as one of the Treasury's digital-asset initiatives and said bitcoin is a new technology and a new area. He said the department is working through complex procedures, applying best practices and building a structure that is sustainable over the long term.

The remarks came more than a year after Trump announced the executive order. The U.S. government's bitcoin holdings currently consist of seized cryptocurrencies, and the Treasury said in March it had no plans to buy additional bitcoin.

The U.S. government is estimated to hold 328,372 bitcoin, worth about $21.5 billion. At the federal level, moves continue to write the executive order into law, and in some states including Texas, bills for state-level cryptocurrency reserves have passed.

Market and policy focus is also concentrated on the scope of reserve assets and the pace of legislation. Bessent did not answer whether $1 billion worth of digital assets seized from Iran after a war between the United States and Israel in February would be included in the reserves.

Bessent also voiced support for the pending digital-asset market structure bill, the CLARITY bill. The bill has been discussed in the Senate for about a year after passing the House, and the Senate Banking Committee and the Agriculture Committee have each passed their own bills covering securities regulation and commodities regulation, respectively. The two bills must be harmonised into a single text ahead of a floor vote.

The White House is looking at this summer for the bill to pass the Senate. Patrick Witt, a White House crypto adviser, said in May that Trump is aiming for a signing ceremony on July 4, but some senators expect it to be handled before August.

As a result, U.S. digital-asset policy appears to be accelerating on two tracks at the same time: a bitcoin reserve and legislation for the CLARITY bill. How the federal government will expand reserve assets, and whether the Senate can consolidate the CLARITY bill into a single measure and put it to an actual vote, remain key variables going forward.