In a late‑night Truth Social post on July 21, President Donald Trump embedded a video of Coin Center research director Peter Van Valkenburgh’s 2018 Senate testimony and declared it the “greatest Bitcoin explanation of all time,” urging supporters to watch the full clip.
The video, recorded during a Banking Committee hearing on the nascent crypto ecosystem, presents Van Valkenburgh’s core argument that Bitcoin is “the world’s first public digital payments infrastructure.” “It lets you send and receive value to and from anyone in the world using nothing more than a computer and an internet connection,” he tells lawmakers, later calling the protocol “a computer‑science breakthrough” that could rival “the birth of the Internet” for its impact on human freedom.
Independent tallies suggest the numbers are substantial. Chainalysis estimates that wallets controlled by US agencies contain roughly 200,000 BTC—about $20.4 billion at current prices—making Washington the largest sovereign holder of Bitcoin.
Trump’s March order takes the opposite tack, forbidding sales of reserve Bitcoin and directing Treasury and Commerce to devise cost‑neutral acquisition strategies.
The president’s post also caps “Crypto Week.” On Friday Trump signed the GENIUS Act, the first federal statute governing dollar‑backed stablecoins, while the House advanced the CLARITY Act and the Anti‑CBDC Surveillance State Act, measures that would shift much enforcement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and bar a Federal Reserve digital currency.
Whether the Working Group’s report will echo Van Valkenburgh’s assertion that “Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money” remains to be seen. But with the president now personally amplifying that message—and with the policy blueprint due within hours—Washington’s next move on crypto will soon move from speculation to the public record.
At press time, BTC traded at $118,216.
