(7 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington DC – 7 March 2025
1. Cutaway of David Sacks walking up to press along White House driveway
2. SOUNDBITE (English) David Sacks, Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
"I guess a lot of you are asking, why are we doing a strategic. Bitcoin reserve today? I think the truth is it should have been done a long time ago. Over the past decade or so, the federal government has accumulated something like 400,000 Bitcoin through civil or criminal asset forfeiture or seizures. Unfortunately, we did not have a long term strategy for maximizing the value of this asset as a country. And so roughly half that Bitcoin was sold for something like $370 million. Today, that’d be worth over 17 billion if we had held it. So now the question is what do we do with the rest of it? We think the numbers around 200,000 Bitcoin. We think that’s a very strategic asset with each be help long term for the value of the country and to maximize value of this asset for taxpayers. So that’s what we’re doing."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) David Sacks, Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
"So the reserve is capitalized with existing Bitcoin that the red the government already owns on its balance sheet. We don’t have a plan to buy more, except that the executive order provides that if the Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary of Commerce can come up with a budget neutral way to acquire more then they are authorized – they don’t have to – but they’re authorized to develop those strategies. I think it’s important to say that this reserve does not cost taxpayers a dime. We already own this Bitcoin. And like I said, we’re only allowed to buy more if it doesn’t add to the deficit or the debt or cost taxpayers anything."
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) David Sacks, Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
"So the objective of the summit today is to take in feedback, and advice from the industry. We promised to do that during the campaign. That’s the primary focus of today’s summit is to hear from industry leaders, some of the foremost thinkers in the space. I think it’s safe to say that the administration wants to end the war on crypto. We’ve promised to do that. We want to end Operation Chokepoint 2.0, which unfairly persecuted and prosecuted founders just for starting crypto companies. They were often debunked, not just their companies, but them personally. We think that’s very unfair. If people are treated like criminals without ever having been convicted in a court of law, of anything. That really needs to stop. That was a form of lawfare against this cutting edge technology. We’re going to stop that."
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) David Sacks, Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
"Ultimately going to be up to the Secretary of the Treasury to manage the digital asset portfolio, the stockpile, in the most prudent way, forward. the what the executive order provides is that the Secretary of the Treasury should exercise responsible stewardship. But ultimately, it’ll be up to the Secretary of the Treasury, and then also the Secretary of Commerce to determine if there’s budget neutral ways of adding to our Bitcoin reserve. But we have not had conversations about what those might be yet."
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) David Sacks, Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
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STORYLINE:
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