The US Treasury has started talks with top crypto custody companies about securing the government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve

The US Treasury has started talks with top crypto custody companies about securing the government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, according to a report from Decrypt

The US Treasury has started talks with top crypto custody companies about securing the government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, according to a report by Decrypt on Thursday.

The report comes after the Biden administration had a hostile approach toward crypto, with regulatory crackdowns that forced many companies to operate in uncertainty. But under President Donald Trump, the government has turned pro-crypto for the very first time ever.

Trump’s executive order on the strategic Bitcoin reserve directed the Treasury and Commerce Department to explore how the US can add a ton to its Bitcoin holdings while making sure that the strategy remains budget neutral.

At the White House, David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, has been tasked with overseeing the process.

Sacks had previously told reporters that a full accounting of the federal government’s Bitcoin reserves is in progress. He estimated the holdings at 200,000 BTC and said that a complete audit is needed to confirm the total.

Sacks also said that he wishes the government had maximized value for the American taxpayer when it was buying BTC. He described the SBR as a “digital Fort Knox for digital gold.”

The US’s quick embrace of Bitcoin has caught the attention of global regulators. Speaking at the Chain Reactions crypto conference in Singapore on Thursday, Binance CEO Richard Teng said that the world has gone from a period of regulatory hostility to one where the world’s largest economy is saying, ‘We want to embrace crypto.’'

Teng said he was excited about Trump ending Biden’s infamous “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” which was an effort to restrict access to banking services for crypto companies.

Since Trump won, the banking climate has changed dramatically. Crypto companies that previously struggled to get banking relationships are now finding it easier to work with financial institutions.

Hashkey Capital CEO Stanislav Derengovski agreed, highlighting the return of banking services for crypto companies as one of the biggest changes under the new administration.

“Banks are now more comfortable working with crypto clients,” Derengovski said. “That’s a huge step for the crypto and Web3 industry.”