Galaxy Digital Analyst US Bitcoin Acquisition Plausible in 2025 Within Budget Rules
Summary
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Budget-Neutral Bitcoin Purchase Proposed: Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn suggests the US government could start buying Bitcoin in 2025 without using taxpayer funds, potentially by selling existing government-held altcoins directly for Bitcoin to comply with budget-neutral requirements and the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve rules.
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Shift from Earlier Prediction: Thorn’s current stance marks a change from his late 2024 prediction where he stated the US would not purchase Bitcoin in 2025 but would utilize existing holdings; this shift aligns with increasing confidence likely driven by the pro-crypto political environment under the Trump administration.
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Mechanism: Asset Reallocation: The proposed method avoids new spending by reallocating assets within the government’s existing digital stockpile (selling altcoins for BTC), leveraging a mechanism Thorn describes as elegant and possibly unnoticed by many in government, thus fulfilling executive order goals within budget constraints.
Alex Thorn, who leads firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, suggests the United States government might realistically commence Bitcoin purchases as early as 2025 without violating its current budget-neutral fiscal stance.
This framework mandates that any potential acquisition of Bitcoin must not introduce new financial burdens onto American taxpayers.
Thorn shared these insights during an interview on Bloomberg Crypto, where the discussion spanned various crypto-industry topics, including potential tariffs, the concept of a Bitcoin reserve, and initial coin offerings (ICOs).
He later reiterated this viewpoint through a post on the social media platform X.
Feasibility of Government Bitcoin Purchases
Thorn anticipates the U.S. government incorporating Bitcoin into its reserves, operating within the parameters set for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (also referred to as the United States Digital Assets Stockpile).
These guidelines stipulate that the government cannot sell Bitcoin held in this reserve but directs the Treasury and Commerce departments to identify budget-neutral methods for acquiring Bitcoin.
Concurrently, the rules forbid the purchase of alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) for this reserve.
Expressing a belief that the government is advancing its crypto adoption strategies, Thorn pointed to remarks from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledging Bitcoin’s emergence as a store of value.
This leads Thorn to conclude that government acquisition of some asset, potentially Bitcoin, seems probable.
Regarding the funding source, given the Trump administration’s explicit statement against using taxpayer money for digital asset purchases, Thorn acknowledged the practical challenges of strict budget neutrality.
He proposed a viable workaround: the government could liquidate some of its existing altcoin holdings within the “sell-only” digital assets stockpile and use the proceeds to acquire Bitcoin directly.
Thorn emphasized the potential smoothness of such an operation: “One of the elegant ways is to take some altcoins or something in that stockpile, which, let’s be frank, the government and Congress barely even know that the government possesses… You could sell an altcoin in an altcoin-btc pair and never touch cash at all.”
He elaborated that this method could bypass the need for cash transactions flowing through the general treasury.
Growing Optimism Compared to Earlier Forecasts
Thorn’s recent statements mark a distinct evolution from his perspective detailed in the Galaxy research team’s “Cryptocurrency & Bitcoin Predictions for 2025” report, released on December 31, 2024.
In that document, Thorn had predicted, “The US government will not purchase Bitcoin in 2025, but it will create a stockpile using coins it already holds,” along with departmental reviews of reserve policies.
This shift towards anticipating actual purchases may be spurred by political developments.
The Trump administration has demonstrated a markedly favorable orientation towards cryptocurrencies, with President Trump aiming to position the U.S. as a global leader in the crypto space.
His executive order that established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has arguably cemented the federal government’s engagement with digital assets, contributing to increased investor confidence and relative stability in Bitcoin’s market price recently.
Ultimately, Thorn suggests the government can fulfill aspects of the executive order’s objectives through internal asset reallocation rather than demanding new appropriations, thereby operating within established budgetary constraints.
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