- Bo Hines is the executive director of Donald Trump’s digital assets advisory council.
- He says the White House wants to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible.
- Funding could come through creative means — including tariffs, he suggests.
Bo Hines, executive director of Donald Trump’s council of advisers for digital assets, says he wants to fund a US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve with tariffs.
Hines made the suggestion during an interview with podcaster Anthony Pompliano on Monday in response to a question about novel ideas for funding the reserve.
“We’re looking at many creative ways — whether it be from tariffs, whether it be from something else,” Hines said.
President Trump first floated the idea last summer during the Bitcoin Conference. Trump then signed an executive order in early March to establish a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve as well as a US digital asset stockpile, neither of which would immediately purchase any new assets.
Instead, they’d contain crypto seized by US law enforcement.
Now, however, Hines is suggesting that the White House may be looking at ways to buy more crypto. “We want to acquire as much as we can get,” Hines said of Bitcoin, stressing that the establishment of the Reserve must not “cost the taxpayer a dime.”
Tariffs have the effect of raising prices on any goods imported from an affected country. Some goods, like plain white t-shirts, could cost US consumers as much as 45% more depending on the product’s overall rate of importation, according to NPR.
Hines’ comments come as global markets have been upended over the past month by President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff regime.
“The irony is you went from complete regulatory uncertainty to regulatory certainty. But now there’s general market and geopolitical uncertainty,” John Nahas, vice president of business development at Ava Labs, told DL News during Paris Blockchain Week.
Andrew Flanagan is a markets correspondent for DL News. Have a tip? Reach out to aflanagan@dlnews.com.
