Bo Hines, the former White House crypto director who helped shepherd the administration’s first landmark crypto law, the GENIUS Act, has moved to Tether as Strategy Advisor for Digital Assets and US Expansion—and he’s signaling that a second pillar of the policy agenda, a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve law, is on track before year-end.
Bitcoin Reserve Act Could Pass ‘This Year’
In a new on-camera conversation with CoinDesk’s Sam Ewen alongside Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Hines said he remains “very confident that the US government is going to be keenly interested on moving expeditiously on budget-neutral ways to accumulate,” adding that President Trump “has been a steadfast leader in the space… This is a major priority for him. And that includes the SBR.” He went further: “You’ll have two monumental pieces of crypto legislation signed into law this year, firmly cementing the United States’ place as the crypto capital of the world.”
JUST IN: FORMER WHITE HOUSE CRYPTO DIRECTOR BO HINES IS CONFIDENT THE #BITCOIN RESERVE ACT WILL BE SIGNED INTO LAW “THIS YEAR”
2025 WILL BE A HISTORIC YEAR FOR BTC 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CQHtHhwZa2
— The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) August 26, 2025
Hines’ remarks come just a week after his exit from government and his appointment at Tether. As head of the White House’s crypto policy shop, Hines was closely involved in the legislative push that culminated on July 18, 2025, when President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating the first comprehensive federal framework for US dollar-pegged payment stablecoins. The law’s passage set the stage for a broader market-structure package and gave new momentum to efforts to formalize a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) in statute.
Although an executive order on March 6, 2025 already established a federal SBR and a separate US Digital Asset Stockpile for non-bitcoin holdings, the so-called Bitcoin Reserve Act—formally introduced in Congress as the BITCOIN Act—would codify and expand that framework.
The White House directive seeded the SBR with coins already owned by the government via forfeiture and barred selling those holdings, framing BTC as a long-term reserve asset. The Senate version of the BITCOIN Act (S.954), led by Sen. Cynthia Lummis, and the House companion (H.R.2032) from Rep. Nick Begich would put the reserve on a statutory footing and spell out acquisition authorities and governance. Both bills were introduced in March and referred to committee, giving a 2025 landing zone if the Senate moves.
In his interview, Hines hinted at continuity inside the administration following his departure—“the last time that we’ve been truly able to speak on digital asset issues was the day before I left, but I’m very confident in Patrick’s [Witt] abilities to perform and deliver for the industry”—and framed the legislative sequencing ahead: GENIUS is done; market structure and the reserve law are the next files in the queue. “We have a market structure on the horizon now… I’m confident they’ll be able to bring that home as well,” he said, before reiterating his expectation of two major crypto bills signed in 2025.
Policy context now matters as much as personnel. The March executive order creating the SBR instructs Treasury to hold seized and forfeited bitcoin in a dedicated reserve, and it authorizes a Digital Asset Stockpile for other tokens. A White House fact sheet emphasizes that bitcoin placed in the reserve will not be sold, underscoring the administration’s positioning of BTC as a strategic, long-duration asset rather than a trading balance. Codification via the BITCOIN Act would remove any ambiguity about acquisition tools, governance, and reporting, and could create explicit “budget-neutral” pathways to accumulate additional bitcoin.
That debate has featured Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose public messaging has whipsawed in recent weeks. In mid-August, Bessent told Fox Business, “We are not going to be buying that,” when pressed on fresh bitcoin purchases, even as he and Treasury officials simultaneously highlighted “budget-neutral” mechanisms under evaluation. A follow-up post on X by Bessent clarified that seized bitcoin will anchor the reserve and that Treasury is still exploring ways to add without tapping taxpayers—precisely the line Hines invoked.
At press time, BTC traded at $110,530.
