He said closed-door meetings of government officials on the topic began after the US election in November 2024.
In response to accusations of misinformation, Bailey noted that he had reported on the formation of the SBR in the US and the pardon of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht before official statements. Regarding his sources, he emphasised that Beijing has "quite a few diehard bitcoiners".
Potential leader
On 6 March, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the SBR. The foundation of the fund will be based on assets confiscated by the state. The initiative was one of the presidential election promises of the politician.
According to Bitcoin Treasuries, the US-controlled wallets hold 198,109 BTC.
However, approximately 120,000 BTC must be returned to the Bitfinex exchange. Law enforcers seized the cryptocurrency from hacker Ilya Lichtenstein, who hacked into the platform in 2016. For 94,643 BTC, US prosecutors have already requested a court order.
The Chinese government is withholding 190,000 BTC, according to the service. The assets are linked to the PlusToken crypto pyramid scheme.
Theoretically, this amount could make Beijing the largest state owner of digital gold. However, the media reported back in 2020 that all cryptocurrencies confiscated from the scam organisers were sold for $4.2 billion.
However, analysts in the following years continued to track the movement of some of the assets seized from PlusToken, e.g., Ethereum.
In January 2025, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Yong Ju did suggest that the PRC got rid of all cryptocurrencies through Chinese exchanges like Huobi.
The expert noted that the CCP said it had transferred assets "to the national treasury", without specifying whether the conversion was to fiat.
"A censored regime holding censorship-resistant money feels unlikely.," stated the head of CryptoQuant.
Who is in the queue?
The third largest bitcoin-owning state is the UK with 61,000 BTC. The authorities have not made any official statements about the possible formation of an SBR.
Ukraine, according to Bitcoin Treasuries, owns 46,351 BTC. But it is unclear how reliable this information is, as well as the status of the assets.
Bhutan and El Salvador have confirmed bitcoin reserves of 10,635 BTC and 6,103 BTC respectively.
The Latin American country recognised the first cryptocurrency as legal tender in the country back in September 2021. In recent months, the Salvadoran authorities have come under pressure from the IMF. The international body is demanding major adjustments to bitcoin strategy as part of a $1.4bn credit line agreement
German authorities urgently sold 49,858 BTC in the summer of 2024, raising €2.6bn ($2.88bn). The assets in question were confiscated from piracy portal Movie2k in January. At the time, they were worth about $2.17 billion.
The liquidation of the cryptocurrency stockpile was criticised in the Bundestag. The assets could become the basis of the country's or even the EU's SBR. Calls for a reserve have been made both in Germany and the European Parliament.
However, the confiscated bitcoins were held by the authorities of the federal state of Saxony. According to local law, time limits for holding seized assets are limited and the sale simply went through according to the rules, explained Blockchain Research Lab co-founder and CEO Lennart Ante.
The Russian State Duma stated that the creation of a national reserve "is not yet being discussed" at the state level. The country does not officially own the first cryptocurrency.
Jan3 CEO Samson Mouw is convinced that in the "SBR race" launched by the US, purchases of digital gold by various states are inevitable. Russia's actions in this direction "are important," he added, citing his own sources.
Mow also believes that the United States will not want to miss the dominance in the sector and will increase the volume of SBR by acquiring the first cryptocurrency.
