John Lyons, the ABC’s Americas Editor, is no stranger to difficult rooms. Decades in foreign bureaus have taught him the fine art of asking sharp questions without drawing blood. But at the White House this week, his inquiry to Donald Trump — whether the President’s personal wealth had swelled since returning to office — pierced the air.
Trump accused Lyons of “hurting Australia,” told him to be quiet, and — with an almost offhand defiance — confirmed an upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that had not yet been announced. A query about financial disclosure had, in seconds, become an international headline, splicing together trade, diplomacy and the delicate dynamics of U.S.–Australia relations.
That flash of volatility has become a hallmark of Trump’s second term and it is reshaping more than press conferences. Since his return to office, Bitcoin has been quietly climbing — from roughly US$102,000–$109,000 in January to about US$115,000–$116,000 in mid-September, buoyed by expectations of clearer regulation, increased institutional uptake and a friendlier policy climate. Capital is flowing back, crypto firms are hiring and lawmakers are toying with their boldest experiment yet: a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
The idea, long whispered on the margins of policy circles, has now reached the floor of the U.S. Congress. Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich are spearheading legislation to create a federal Bitcoin stockpile, bolstered by high-profile endorsements from industry figures such as Michael Saylor. A House appropriations bill introduced in September compels the U.S. Treasury to deliver, within 90 days, a detailed blueprint for how such a reserve might work including the custody architecture, legal authorisations and cybersecurity frameworks it would require. This comes following a March 2025 Executive Order which directed Treasury to complete an initial 60-day feasibility study.
The scale is significant. One million Bitcoin would represent roughly 5% of the currency’s fixed 21 million supply — and just over 5% of all coins currently in circulation. Accumulating that much would send a gravitational tug through global markets. Advocates argue the reserve could serve as a hedge against dollar erosion, a diversification of strategic holdings and a counterweight to the gold-buying sprees of central banks in China and Russia. It is framed not as a technological gamble, but as a geopolitical instrument.
It may never materialise, but markets often price in narratives long before they price in statutes. For more than a decade, Bitcoin has been treated as a volatile curiosity: speculative, brittle, peripheral. Now it is being spoken of as infrastructure and a potential pillar of sovereign strategy. Even the hint that Washington might one day hoard Bitcoin ensures months of media coverage, investor positioning and policy debate. Each aspect of this policy will demand its own communications strategy. Even if the reserve itself never takes shape, the idea will have lodged in the public imagination.
Australia will not be insulated. Super funds, insurers and endowments may soon find their boards asking not if they will invest in digital assets, but why they will not. Family offices and wealth advisers can expect client inquiries framed not as punts, but as hedges discussed in Cabinet rooms. Regulators will be drawn into the media slipstream, pressed for commentary. Even firms that forego crypto exposure entirely will be expected to defend that stance with greater clarity.
For those building the plumbing of the digital-asset economy — custodians, exchanges, infrastructure providers — the challenge will be tonal. If perception shifts from novelty to necessity, they must present themselves as institutional-grade, resilient, regulation-ready. This is no longer about disruption. It is about readiness.
Sceptics may dismiss a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States as political theatre. They may be correct. But markets are shaped as much by stories as by statutes, and this is a story designed to travel — rich in geopolitics, technological tension, and trillion-dollar hypotheticals. It will command headlines whether or not it becomes law. In doing so, it may quietly reset how institutional investors and the public think about Bitcoin and the broader digital-asset world.
For Australian institutions, this is not yet a call to act. But it is a signal to prepare, because once ideas start moving at this scale, capital rarely waits long to follow.