Witt explained why such a programme has migrated from white-paper theory to presidential policy. “Bitcoin and the digital-assets ecosystem is an engine for economic growth,” he said. “A strong economy enables everything else. We want to be the crypto capital of the world, and that includes both innovation on-chain and domestic mining.”
He then framed the asset as “a tool of modern statecraft,” arguing that the country that shapes the next monetary architecture will wield influence comparable to the United States’ post-1945 dollar hegemony. “If we’re not actively shaping and influencing what that new construct looks like,” he warned, “we’re going to be at a disadvantage.”
Although Witt wore a digital-asset hat on stage, his other job—overseeing the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital—hovered in the background. He reminded the audience that OSC, a vehicle originally seeded with $984 million in lending authority, now stands at five billion dollars and could reach $200 billion if Congress grants equity powers.
Witt hinted that some of that war-chest could flow into bitcoin-adjacent energy and compute infrastructure. “We want compute and energy to be domestic, secure, and abundant,” he said, inviting miners and grid-modernisation firms to view OSC as a potential lender of first resort rather than last. “We’re open for business.”
Egan steered the conversation toward the practical obstacles of embedding bitcoin in national strategy. Witt acknowledged the legislative gauntlet—“getting a seemingly innocuous bill across the finish line requires horse-trading and compromise”—but argued that industry itself can shorten the path by acting as a “trusted partner and objective resource” rather than simply “selling their own book.” He noted that White House staff working on digital assets is “thin,” making outside research indispensable when drafting statutes or rule-makings that can survive contact with political reality.
At press time, BTC traded at $107,799.
