Treasury: Bitcoin store

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly described Bitcoin as a “store of value,” putting the phrase on the record from one of Washington’s top economic officials. (x.com) Bessent has served as Treasury secretary since January 28, 2025, and his crypto comments have become more pointed as the administration pushes Congress to set federal rules for digital assets. On April 8, 2026, Reuters reported that he urged lawmakers to pass the CLARITY Act. (treasury.gov, usnews.com) In U.S. markets, “store of value” usually means an asset people hold to preserve purchasing power over time, the role often assigned to gold or short-term Treasury debt. Bessent has used the same phrase in other speeches for the Treasury market, calling it “a safe, liquid, and reliable store of value.” (treasury.gov) Bitcoin’s legal treatment has been moving in parallel with that language. On March 17, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued joint guidance that described some crypto assets as “non-security crypto assets,” and outside summaries of that release said Bitcoin was placed in the digital-commodity bucket rather than the securities bucket. (sec.gov, cftc.gov, fidelity.com) That distinction affects who regulates trading venues, what disclosures issuers owe, and how lawmakers write market-structure bills. Bessent’s latest push has centered on getting Congress to finish that framework instead of leaving crypto oversight to agency-by-agency fights. (usnews.com, thehill.com) The market backdrop has also changed since the first U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched in January 2024. CoinGlass data showed about $97.4 billion in spot Bitcoin ETF assets on April 16, 2026, giving investors a large regulated channel to buy Bitcoin through brokerage accounts instead of crypto exchanges. (coinglass.com) Supporters have long argued that Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins makes it closer to “digital gold” than to a payment network. Critics still point to large price swings, uneven use in everyday commerce, and the fact that a volatile asset can lose value quickly even if holders treat it as a hedge. (sec.gov, fidelity.com) Bessent’s wording does not, by itself, rewrite federal law or settle every regulatory dispute. It does show that, by April 2026, the Treasury secretary was willing to describe Bitcoin less like a fringe trade and more like an asset Washington expects to classify, regulate, and keep debating. (x.com, usnews.com)