A Bitcoin advocacy group pushing President-elect Donald Trump to stockpile massive amounts of cryptocurrency and state-level efforts to do the same is run by right-wing fossil fuel operatives fighting to dismantle environmental regulations, including the author of the Project 2025 proposal to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency.
If the group has its way, governments will use taxpayer dollars and workers’ retirement funds to buy and hold billions of dollars in largely unregulated, volatile assets that would boost energy demands and accelerate climate destruction.
By stockpiling Bitcoin, governments would boost legitimacy and demand for Bitcoin, likely contributing to a massive increase in Bitcoin prices — and forcing taxpayers to foot an ever-larger bill. Such a price surge would offer major payoffs for the small group of people who own the majority of Bitcoin, the first and most recognizable kind of cryptocurrency. Just 2 percent of accounts own more than 90 percent of the total Bitcoin currently in circulation.
One prominent crypto-enthusiast predicts that if the federal government were to adopt a Bitcoin reserve, it could drive the price of a single Bitcoin to more than $1 million, nearly 10 times its current valuation.
According to multiple policy proposals shaped by cryptocurrency interests, a Bitcoin reserve could help address the federal deficit and put the U.S. at the “forefront of financial innovation while reinforcing the global dominance of the dollar system,” according to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a pro-crypto advocacy group.
The plans also are being pushed by the Satoshi Action Fund, a dark money 501(c)(4) nonprofit that advocates for crypto legislation.
Got A News Tip?
Know of powerful people who need to be held accountable? Have you stumbled upon something fishy? Have you gotten your hands on documents that need to be scrutinized?
At least four states have also introduced Bitcoin-reserve bills that are nearly identical to draft legislation on the matter developed by the Satoshi Action Fund.
A Lever review of the group’s tax filings and its executives’ past employers found that the Satoshi Action Fund has deep connections to the Koch Network, a consortium of oil and petrochemical companies, and the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the sweeping Project 2025 blueprint to reshape the federal government when Trump takes office. One of the Satoshi Action Fund’s executives even wrote the blueprint’s chapter on how to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency — a government agency that she worked for during the first Trump administration.
The mounting Bitcoin-reserve efforts come as the crypto industry spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars during the last campaign cycle to help elect crypto-friendly lawmakers. Both chambers of Congress will have a majority of pro-crypto legislators and Trump has begun nominating industry allies for key regulatory positions.
The prospect of states or the federal government creating Bitcoin reserves is a “cross between a dumb idea and a bad idea,” said Mark Hays, associate director for cryptocurrency and financial technology at the consumer advocate group Americans for Financial Reform.
“It’s yet another crypto solution in search of a problem,” Hays told The Lever. “It brings state institutions, which are inevitably taxpayer-funded, closer to the risk inherent in these markets.”
Unlike the popular image of a financial reserve, a Bitcoin reserve wouldn’t resemble a Fort Knox-like vault filled with currency. Instead, Bitcoins are “stored” on computer servers protected by a passcode. The technology behind Bitcoin — called a proof-of-work blockchain — requires a massive amount of electricity to “mine” new digital coins by solving increasingly hard computer problems, and is already stressing public infrastructure and utilities in many states.
A recent Department of Energy report found that U.S.-based Bitcoin miners used an estimated 70 terawatt hours of electricity in 2023 — more than the state of New Jersey consumed that year. Cryptocurrencies’ energy consumption, which is mostly related to Bitcoin mining, is likely to skyrocket in the coming years.
Federal regulators, meanwhile, recently issued warnings about the crypto industry’s potential to cause widespread financial chaos as it becomes more mainstream, since the poorly regulated digital currencies are known for extreme price swings. The reports echo previous warnings issued by federal regulators about the subprime mortgage industry before the 2008 financial crisis.
“Lawmakers Competing To Be The First In History”
Dennis Porter, the Satoshi Action Fund’s CEO and cofounder, claims that the nonprofit helped draft an executive order for Trump to establish a federal strategic Bitcoin reserve. As part of the plan, Trump has vowed to keep all of the Bitcoin that the government currently has or seizes in the future in order to start stockpiling the cryptocurrency.
Law enforcement agencies regularly seize Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets during the scope of their investigations.
In November 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office seized nearly 95,000 Bitcoins from a duo of prominent crypto scammers. Through these kinds of forfeitures, the federal government has reportedly acquired more than $19.46 billion worth of Bitcoin, according to Arkham Intelligence, an analytics firm that tracks cryptocurrency accounts.
Trump — who promised to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” — has had multiple meetings with crypto industry figureheads and has appointed many prominent figures from the industry to key positions — including Elon Musk, David Sacks, Howard Lutnick, and others.
Porter has furthermore championed a Bitcoin reserve bill introduced by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) last year. Lummis is a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Development Committee, which oversees cryptocurrency legislation. This past election cycle, Lummis received more than $47,000 in campaign donations from a handful of prominent crypto industry figureheads even though she wasn’t facing reelection, according to federal data reviewed by The Lever.
Lummis’ bill would require the federal government to purchase “approximately 5 [percent] of [the] total Bitcoin supply” over a five-year period. The government could then sell the Bitcoin after holding it for at least 20 years, unless it is being used to “retire outstanding federal debt.”
Listen To MASTER PLAN
Master Plan, an investigative podcast series years in the making from The Lever, reveals how political ideologues and corporate forces have spent years orchestrating a system of legalized corruption in America. We are exposing their scheme.
The legislation would also require the Treasury Department to revalue the price of an ounce of gold to fund the federal purchase of the volatile cryptocurrency.
The Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund, two cryptocurrency advocacy groups, have spent $730,000 lobbying on the Lummis bill and other initiatives in just one quarter of 2024, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by The Lever.
The Satoshi Action Fund has also been spearheading efforts in state legislatures that could allow these states to use taxpayer dollars to buy Bitcoin and hold it for a certain number of years before potentially selling it off.
Five states — New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas — have already introduced legislation that shares almost verbatim language with model legislation produced by the Satoshi Action Fund in September 2024. According to news reports, the advocacy group was instrumental in introducing both the Pennsylvania and Texas legislation last year. New Hampshire’s and North Dakota’s bills were introduced earlier this year.
According to metadata reviewed by The Lever, it appears that the Satoshi Action model bill was created on Sept. 24, two months before the first of these bills was introduced in Pennsylvania.
Florida is also considering adopting a Bitcoin reserve by allocating $1.16 billion of its pension fund to purchase Bitcoins.
Earlier this month, the Satoshi Action Fund announced it has been in talks with lawmakers in more than a dozen other states to enact Bitcoin reserve legislation.
“Up to 20 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bills will be introduced at the state level — multiple bills in the same state — lawmakers competing aggressively to be the first in history,” Porter, the group’s CEO, posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Jan. 6. “The vast majority of these bills will be based on [Satoshi Action Fund legislative] models.”
What Is The Satoshi Action Fund?
The Satoshi Action Fund lists just three employees on its website — and two of those listed have received paychecks from major far-right dark money political operations.
Eric Peterson, policy director for Satoshi Action, previously served as a senior policy analyst for the Americans for Prosperity, a dark money political action committee founded by fossil fuel tycoons David and Charles Koch that has dumped more than $250 million into conservative candidates’ election coffers since 2004.
Meanwhile, Mandy Gunasekara, cofounder of Satoshi Action, is currently a visiting fellow for the Heritage Foundation, the dark money group behind the radical Project 2025 plan to dismantle the federal government under Trump. Gunasekara wrote a chapter in the Project 2025 blueprint attacking the Environmental Protection Agency.
Gunasekara claims that the Biden administration launched an “assault” on the coal, oil, and natural gas industries, as well as the chemical and pesticide industries — all major industries connected to the Koch Network. She also advocated to remove regulations governing air quality standards.
Gunasekara previously served as a principal deputy assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation during the first Trump administration, according to TruthOut. She was reportedly the “chief architect” behind Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, an international agreement adopted in 2015 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Gunasekara resigned from her federal post in 2019 to start the Energy 45 Fund, a dark money nonprofit dedicated to promoting “the Trump energy agenda.” The nonprofit’s website reportedly called Democrats’ environmental initiatives at the time a “leftward lurch so dramatic that it would make Stalin blush.”
By 2022, the nonprofit dissolved in name, but its operation appears still active: It shares the same employer identification number for tax reporting purposes as the Satoshi Action Fund, according to tax documents reviewed by The Lever.
Tax records show that the Satoshi Action Fund spent more than $88,000 on lobbying expenses in 2023, the most recent year on record.
The Satoshi Action Fund did not respond to interview requests.
Beyond advocating for Bitcoin reserves, the Satoshi Action Fund has also helped pass state legislation establishing a right to mine Bitcoin. Porter, its CEO, was so influential in helping pass Bitcoin mining legislation in Montana that the governor gave Porter the pen he used to sign the bill.
In a one-page fact sheet on its website, Satoshi Action claims that Bitcoin mining can help reduce energy rates, stabilize electrical grids, and “increase orphaned oil well cleanup,” among other issues.
However, Bitcoin mining has caused electricity rates to surge in some areas, costing some ratepayers an average extra $8 a month. Texas lawmakers have warned that Bitcoin mining could destabilize its power grid.
“The Worst Of All Worlds”
The federal and state Bitcoin reserve efforts are built around the idea that stockpiling the cryptocurrency could help fight against inflation, reduce government debt, and protect against and the potential devaluation of the U.S. dollar. Advocates claim that Bitcoin can help with these efforts because of its allegedly ever-increasing value due to its capped limit of just 21 million total Bitcoins.
But some experts warn that these predictions are likely industry talking points and will, at best, have a marginal effect on the U.S. debt.
While the price of Bitcoin has certainly skyrocketed since it was first introduced in 2009, it is still prone to massive price swings. In April 2024, Bitcoin’s price fell 15 percent in a single day. The collapse, alongside that of other cryptocurrencies, resulted in a $367 billion price drop.
The crypto industry’s interconnectedness — how most cryptocurrency prices tend to rise and fall at the same time — is something that federal regulators recently warned could have dramatic effects on traditional banking and financial institutions.
The regulators also highlighted how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t as recession-proof as many advocates claim. Crypto prices tend to oscillate corresponding with changes in interest rates, according to Federal Reserve economists.
Unlike traditional stock holdings held by state governments and public institutions, Bitcoin reserves don’t generate regular dividends unless you sell off part or all of the cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin can go up in value, but you don’t realize anything until you spend it or sell it. It’s not something that will continue to give you back rewards just by holding on to it,” said Bradley Rettler, director of University of Wyoming’s Bitcoin Research Institute. “So for that reason, it makes less sense to me as a state investment.”
Experts also warned that states owning large stores of Bitcoin could come with financial risks.
Pennsylvania’s Bitcoin-reserve bill, introduced in November, would allow the state treasurer to use significant amounts of uncommitted funds from the state’s revenues to purchase Bitcoin. According to the legislation, the treasurer would be allowed to invest up to “10 [percent] of the total amount of money deposited in the fund at the time of the investment” to purchase Bitcoin.
A large state investment in a volatile asset like Bitcoin would be “highly risky,” said Lamont Black, director of the doctorate in business administration program at DePaul University.
“I’m supportive of the idea of states putting some Bitcoin on their balance sheet, partly to familiarize themselves with this new technology and to prepare themselves for the future,” Black told The Lever. “I would not be in favor of states putting large amounts of Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Bitcoin is still super volatile, so you get these spikes and then crashes.”
Black added that if states are struggling with their budget, having large stores of Bitcoin — like Pennsylvania lawmakers are proposing — could worsen their economic position.
“If a state was already in a tight financial situation, and then, for some reason, they were forced to sell that Bitcoin at low prices, that would be the worst of all worlds,” Black said. “You don’t want to put all your eggs into something like this.”
