Saylor: U.S. Should Buy 20% of Bitcoin Supply

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor has suggested that the United States could acquire 20% of Bitcoin’s supply “for free”, claiming that owning 4 to 6 million BTC would be enough to eliminate the national debt.

Speaking at the annual CPAC conference, Saylor argued that a federal Bitcoin reserve would strengthen the U.S. dollar while preventing rival nations from making the first move.

“There’s only room for one nation-state to buy up 20% of the network,” Saylor warned.
“You wouldn’t want the Saudis buying it first, or the Russians, or the Chinese or the Europeans.”

Growing Political Interest in Bitcoin Reserves

Saylor’s comments align with a growing push among U.S. lawmakers to explore Bitcoin reserves.

• In Utah, a bill to mandate a state-held Bitcoin reserve recently passed a Senate committee vote.
• President Donald Trump has also formed a working group to assess the feasibility of a federal Bitcoin reserve.

Saylor insists the U.S. government could acquire a massive BTC stockpile “like that”, referencing the government’s ability to print unlimited dollars through Treasuries.

Currently, the U.S. government holds 183,422 BTC (~1% of Bitcoin’s supply), while the British government owns 61,245 BTC. Meanwhile, Germany sold $2.8 billion worth of BTC in 2023.

Bitcoin as a Reserve Asset? Experts Disagree

While Saylor remains bullish, some experts question whether Bitcoin qualifies as a strategic reserve asset.

• Christian Catalini, founder of MIT’s Cryptoeconomics Lab, argues that reserves should provide immediate liquidity during crises—a role Bitcoin does not fulfill.
• Catalini also warns that amassing BTC could undermine the U.S. dollar’s dominance, fueling narratives that the U.S. is hedging against its own currency.

“Countries store dollars or oil because they need them to repay debts, settle cross-border obligations, and keep essential systems running,” Catalini wrote in a blog post for OMFIF.

Skepticism Over Saylor’s Motives

Longtime Bitcoin critic David Gerard dismissed Saylor’s remarks as an attempt to pump BTC’s price and provide credibility to Strategy’s business model.

“Saylor is advocating for U.S. government price support for Bitcoin and that’s all,” Gerard told Decrypt.

Gerard also noted that Strategy’s shareholders recently approved increasing Class A shares from 330 million to 10.3 billion, part of an effort to raise $46 billion through stock and bond sales.

“The same process happened with Bitcoin miners in the 2021-2022 bubble,” he added.
“Companies would talk Bitcoin slogans, but insiders were cashing out, leaving investors with losses.”

Despite the skepticism, Strategy continues to accumulate Bitcoin, maintaining the largest BTC holdings of any publicly traded company, with over 430,000 BTC on its balance sheet.

With political interest in Bitcoin reserves growing, Saylor’s vision might not be entirely dismissed—but whether the U.S. adopts such a strategy remains an open question.