Cathie Wooden, ARK Make investments’s founder and CEO, mentioned she expects the Trump administration may transfer past merely holding seized bitcoin and start buying BTC to construct a US strategic reserve, a shift she argued may grow to be a catalytic sign for markets and different governments.
Talking on ARK’s “Bitcoin Brainstorm” podcast in an episode dated Jan. 08, Wooden framed authorities shopping for as a possible inflection level at a time when she believes institutional participation stays “simply starting” and bitcoin’s provide dynamics are getting more durable to disregard.
“We have now seen little or no institutional buy-in, it’s simply starting,” Wooden mentioned. “And I believe if we get the US, for instance, not including simply confiscated bitcoin to a strategic reserve however, you understand, on the market shopping for, and we don’t know if that’s going to be the case. But when they had been to take action, I’ve a sense that will set off what we’re all ready for, which is, you understand, the shortage worth to reassert itself once more now that we’re close to 20 million bitcoin excellent and we solely have yet one more million to go.”
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Within the dialogue, Wooden recommended the administration’s posture to this point has successfully been restricted to confiscated holdings. She contrasted that with what she described as an earlier ambition for scale, noting “the unique intent was to personal 1,000,000 bitcoin,” earlier than including her view {that a} pivot towards purchases is believable.
Midterms Might Drive US Bitcoin Reserve Buys
Wooden linked that risk to political incentives heading into the 2026 US midterm elections, describing Trump as motivated to maintain momentum and keep away from being politically sidelined. “President Trump doesn’t need to be a lame duck,” she mentioned. “So I’ve a sense that he’s going to work along with his crypto and AI czar to do a couple of issues… [and] it appears as if there’s been reticence about truly shopping for bitcoin for the strategic reserve. To this point, to this point it’s confiscated… So I truly assume they are going to begin shopping for.”
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Wooden additionally pointed to what she sees as aligned constituencies across the president, arguing he has “every kind of causes” to lean into crypto whereas emphasizing that the political calculus issues due to the midterm timeline.
When the dialog turned to how such purchases might be executed, Wooden echoed the concept that any reserve technique would have to be budget-neutral. She didn’t define a mechanism, however handled the constraint as a key gating issue for feasibility.
Wooden argued that specific US shopping for wouldn’t simply be a home market occasion. Iit may pressure different capitals to revisit reserve coverage. “One thing that’s actually essential… we thought that nations would undertake it a lot sooner than they’ve,” she mentioned. “I believe if the US truly says, ‘Okay, now we’re going to purchase,’ that’s going to spur loads of different governments to assume this factor by means of. Do they need to be hostage to the greenback…? And you understand, no, they don’t. So put some bitcoin in your reserves.”
If that dynamic accelerates, Wooden warned emerging-market currencies may face renewed strain, describing a state of affairs the place reserve diversification towards bitcoin reshapes volatility throughout weaker fiat regimes, a downstream impact, she recommended, of Washington making the primary overt transfer from holding seized BTC to competing within the open market.
At press time, BTC traded at $90,578.
Featured picture from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
