Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Invest, said she expects the Trump administration could move beyond simply holding on to seized bitcoin and begin buying BTC to build the US strategic reserve, a move she argued could become a catalytic signal to markets and other governments.
Speaking on ARK’s “Bitcoin Brainstorm” podcast in an episode as of Jan. 8, Wood has flagged the government purchase as a potential tipping point at a time when she believes institutional participation is “just beginning” and that the dynamics of bitcoin’s supply are increasingly difficult to ignore.
“We’ve seen very little institutional support, it’s just the beginning,” Wood said. “And I think if we get the U.S., for example, to not just add seized bitcoins to the strategic reserves, but, you know, buy them out, and we don’t know if that’s going to be the case. But if they did, I have a feeling that it would trigger what we’re all waiting for, which is, you know, the scarcity value that’s going to reassert itself now that we’re close to 20 million bitcoins available and we’ve only got one million more to go.”
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In the debate, Wood suggested that the administration’s hold thus far has been limited to confiscated properties. She contrasted that with what she described as an earlier ambition to raise, noting that “the original intention was to own a million bitcoins,” before adding that she thought a pivot to buying was possible.
Midterms could spur buying of U.S. Bitcoin reserves
Wood linked the possibility to political incentives ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections, describing Trump as motivated to maintain momentum and avoid being politically sidelined. “President Trump does not want to be a lame duck,” she said. “So I have a feeling he’s going to work with his crypto and AI czar to do a few things… (and) it seems like there’s been reticence about actually buying bitcoin for strategic reserves. So far, it’s been seized so far… So I actually think they’re going to start buying.”
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Wood also pointed to what she sees as aligned constituencies around the president, arguing that he has “all kinds of reasons” to favor cryptocurrencies, while stressing that the political calculus is important because of the midterm schedule.
When the conversation turned to how such purchases could be made, Wood reiterated the idea that any reserve strategy must be budget neutral. She did not describe the mechanism, but treated the limitation as a key factor for feasibility.
Wood argued that an explicit purchase in the US would not just be a domestic event. This could force other capitals to reconsider their reserve policies. “Something that’s very important … we thought countries would adopt it a lot earlier than they did,” she said. “I think if the U.S. really says, ‘OK, we’re going to buy now,’ that will prompt a lot of other governments to think hard about this thing. Do they want to be hostage to the dollar…? And you know, no, they don’t. So put some bitcoins in your reserves.”
If that dynamic accelerates, Wood warned that emerging market currencies could face renewed pressure, describing a scenario where diversification of reserves toward bitcoin reshapes volatility in weaker fiat regimes, a downstream effect, she suggested, of Washington taking the first overt step from holding seized BTC to open market competition.
At press time, BTC was trading at $90,578.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
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