Cathie Wooden, ARK Make investments’s founder and CEO, stated 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 turn out 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’ve got seen little or no institutional buy-in, it’s simply starting,” Wooden stated. “And I feel if we get the US, for instance, not including simply confiscated bitcoin to a strategic reserve however, you already know, on the market shopping for, and we don’t know if that’s going to be the case. But when they have been to take action, I’ve a sense that might set off what we’re all ready for, which is, you already know, 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 advised the administration’s posture to date 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 one million bitcoin,” earlier than including her view {that a} pivot towards purchases is believable.
Midterms May 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 stated. “So I’ve a sense that he’s going to work together with his crypto and AI czar to do a couple of issues… [and] it appears as if there’s been reticence about really shopping for bitcoin for the strategic reserve. To this point, to date it’s confiscated… So I really suppose they’ll begin shopping for.”
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Wooden additionally pointed to what she sees as aligned constituencies across the president, arguing he has “all types 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 may very well be executed, Wooden echoed the concept any reserve technique would should be budget-neutral. She didn’t define a mechanism, however handled the constraint as a key gating issue for feasibility.
Wooden argued that express 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 stated. “I feel if the US really says, ‘Okay, now we’re going to purchase,’ that’s going to spur plenty of different governments to suppose this factor by means of. Do they need to be hostage to the greenback…? And you already know, no, they don’t. So put some bitcoin in your reserves.”
If that dynamic accelerates, Wooden warned emerging-market currencies may face renewed stress, describing a situation the place reserve diversification towards bitcoin reshapes volatility throughout weaker fiat regimes, a downstream impact, she advised, 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
