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U.S. government isn’t poised to sweep in with bitcoin buys, despite Jim Cramer rumor

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U.S. government isn't poised to sweep in with bitcoin buys, despite Jim Cramer rumor

President Donald Trump’s U.S. bitcoin reserve doesn’t exist yet, and there is no mechanism in the federal government for the wholesale purchase of crypto.

Keep that in mind when considering this weekend’s speculation about the price point that would cause the White House to push a buy button, thanks in large part to CNBC speculator Jim Cramer. There is no such button.

The president did order a “strategic reserve” established to hold bitcoin, but that didn’t make it spring into existence. The Treasury Department and crypto advisers spent months auditing the federal holdings of crypto (though White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt told CoinDesk last week that they still won’t share a number). But the process hit a snag: The advocates said they still need Congress to establish the stockpile under law.

The crypto sector’s new U.S. law for stablecoin issuers didn’t include it, nor does the sweeping crypto market structure bill currently grinding through the U.S. Senate. Clearing legislation through this Congress — even less controversial matters — is a tall order, and industry lobbyists are currently focused on the bill to finally establish market and oversight regulations for digital assets. A reserve may not even be second on the list of priorities, because crypto tax rules also beckon.

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When Cramer suggested on-air that Trump has a plan, saying, “I heard at 60 he’s going to fill the bitcoin reserve,” the crypto markets took some notice. The struggling asset has recently dropped as low as $62,840 but spent some days hovering just under $70,000, and if the U.S. government stood ready to swoop in at $60,000, that could be a big deal. But the rumor isn’t supported by what’s going on with the federal fund.

For now, Trump’s executive order last year to set up the bitcoin reserve and a separate stockpile of other crypto assets waits to be fulfilled. And his order carefully rejected the idea of the government purchasing crypto with taxpayer money (which disappointed the industry at the time). Instead, he directed his administration to stop selling seized assets, so anything grabbed in civil or criminal cases is now allegedly being set aside for the future reserve.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the weekend speculation. The government’s current bitcoin holding may hover around $23 billion, according to data from Arkham Intelligence on U.S.-associated wallets.

Some ideas have been floated by Trump’s advisers and by lawmakers such as Senator Cynthia Lummis for how the feds could buy bitcoin without tapping taxpayers, but no solutions have yet been chosen. And Lummis’ legislative efforts to enact the reserve haven’t advanced, even as her Senate tenure dwindles after her announcement she’ll retire after this year.

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During Congressional hearings last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked whether the government was in a position to bail out bitcoin, and Bessent said he had no such authority. More specifically, though, he said he can’t order U.S. bankers to start buying up crypto.

For government purchases, the industry may be better off looking toward states at the moment. Several state governments pursued bitcoin reserve authorities last year and have been more nimble than the federal government in setting up pockets of their budgets meant for digital assets.

Read More: Why Doesn’t the U.S. Have a Bitcoin Reserve, Yet?

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Crypto World

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News & Price Indexes

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News & Price Indexes

ETH price moved above $2,150 as Bitcoin and US stock markets rallied, but does data show whether derivatives traders have turned bullish yet?

Key takeaways:

  • Ethereum maintains dominance in its total value locked metric, yet faces scrutiny over layer-2 scaling.

  • ETH inflation rose to 0.8% as onchain activity slowed, while US macroeconomic fears kept the derivatives markets in bearish territory.

Ether (ETH) price managed to reclaim the $2,100 level following a 43% crash over nine days that culminated in the altcoin making a $1,750 low on Friday. Despite a 22% relief bounce after hitting its lowest price since April 2025, ETH derivatives markets continue to reflect investors’ fear of further downside. Regardless of whether the macroeconomic environment is driving investor concerns, the odds of sustainable bullish momentum for ETH in the short term remain dim.

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ETH 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch

ETH monthly futures traded at a 3% premium relative to regular spot markets on Monday, which is below the 5% neutral threshold. This lack of optimism among Ether traders has been constant over the past month, showing no signs of improvement even as the price dropped toward $1,800. Unless bulls step in to demonstrate a strong appetite for risk at these levels, bears will likely remain in control.

ETH/USD (orange) vs. total crypto capitalization (blue). Source: TradingView

ETH has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market capitalization by 9% in 2026, leading investors to question what is driving capital away. From a broader perspective, the declining interest in decentralized applications (DApps) is not exclusive to Ethereum. The network remains the dominant leader in Total Value Locked (TVL) and fee generation when aggregating its layer-2 solutions.

Blockchains ranked by TVL (left) and 30-day fees (right), USD. Source: DefiLlama

Deposits on the Ethereum base layer account for 58% of the entire blockchain industry; that figure surpasses 65% when including Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism. For instance, the largest application on Solana hardly exceeds $2 billion in deposits. By comparison, the largest DApp on the Ethereum base layer holds over $23 billion in TVL. Solana’s Jupiter would not even crack the top 14 on Ethereum.

ETH supply growth and layer-2 subsidies remain problematic

The Ethereum base layer ranked third in network fees, generating $19 million over 30 days, while the layer-2 ecosystem contributed another $14.6 million. Ethereum has faced criticism for heavily subsidizing scalability via optimistic rollups—a strategy Vitalik Buterin himself admitted needs adjustment. The Ethereum co-founder argued on Tuesday that the network should prioritize base layer scalability.

According to Buterin, the layer-2 path to decentralization turned out more difficult than anticipated. The present solutions reportedly rely on multisig-controlled bridges, which does not meet security standards required by Ethereum’s original vision. Buterin notes that this is not the end game for layer-2 as demand for networks offering privacy features and application-specific design will continue to exist, especially for non-financial use cases.

Related: Vitalik draws line between ‘real DeFi’ and centralized yield stablecoins

ETH supply change, 30 days. Source: ultrasound.money

Part of investor disappointment can be explained by the failure of Ether’s strategy to become deflationary, which is a secondary effect of reduced Ethereum network activity. The built-in burn mechanism depends on demand for base layer data processing; without it, there is a net increase in the ETH supply. The annualized growth of the total ETH issued reached 0.8% over the last 30 days, a significant jump from one year prior when equivalent inflation was near 0%.

Ether traders remain skeptical that a sustainable rally can occur in the near term due to increased uncertainty in the US job market and the long-term sustainability of investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Consequently, the weak ETH derivatives markets are a reflection of generalized risk aversion and a slowdown in onchain activity—factors that will likely take more time to stabilize.

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