Trump’s national security strategy skips Bitcoin and blockchain
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The Trump administration’s newly released 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) mentions all the emerging technologies, but fails to menton Bitcoin or blockchain.
For a president who campaigned on becoming the “crypto president” and floated a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, that omission is hard to miss.
The National Security Strategy (NSS) is one of the most important policy documents produced by the White House. It lays out how a U.S. president views global threats and opportunities, and what tools (military, economic, technological, diplomatic) America will use to protect its interests.
By law, each U.S. administration is supposed to release an updated NSS “regularly,” but in reality most presidents only publish one or two during their term.
For instance:
- Reagan: 1980s — issued multiple NSS versions
- George W. Bush: 2002 and 2006
- Obama: 2010 and 2015
- Trump (first term): 2017
- Biden: 2022
- Trump (second term): 2025 version released Dec. 5
Related: Cathie Wood predicts Bitcoin will outperform gold despite setback
AI, quantum and ‘digital finance’ gets mentioned
The NSS is the White House’s top-level blueprint that tells agencies, from the Pentagon to the Treasury, how to think about national power, threats and long-term competitiveness.
The new 76-page strategy outlines how the administration views America’s technological advantages and what it intends to protect and expand.
The document states:
“We want to remain the world’s most scientifically and technologically advanced and innovative country, and to build on these strengths. And we want to protect our intellectual property from foreign theft.”
It is notable that while the NSS highlights major frontier technologies, it does not include Bitcoin, blockchain, or digital assets despite President Trump repeatedly framing crypto as a national strategic issue throughout 2024 and 2025.
Across multiple speeches, including his appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, Trump argued that digital asset innovation must remain onshore. During that speech, he made one of his strongest on-record commitments:
“I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas.”
In multiple speeches and policy rollouts, including the signing of the GENIUS Act, as reported by The Times and the Financial Times — Trump positioned China and other global competitors as the beneficiaries if Washington fails to adopt pro-crypto policy.
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Yet the NSS leaves out Bitcoin and blockchain entirely
Given Trump’s public push for a “strategic national Bitcoin reserve” and his frequent warnings that the U.S. must not let China dictate global digital-currency leadership, the absence of Bitcoin, blockchain infrastructure, or digital assets in the new NSS is notably surprising.
Elsewhere, the strategy lists the domains the White House considers decisive for future U.S. power:
“These include undersea, space, and nuclear, as well as others that will decide the future of military power, such as AI, quantum computing, and autonomous systems, plus the energy necessary to fuel these domains.”Another section reinforces the priority"
The strategy references “digital finance” only in broad, non-crypto terms, focusing on international economic systems, payment rails and institutional resilience, without addressing decentralized networks, cryptocurrency markets, or global layer-1 competition.
Adversaries ‘weaponizing’ AI
When it comes to threats, the NSS leans hard into AI and other frontier tech as security risks as well as economic opportunities:
“From advanced artificial intelligence to quantum-enabled sensing, adversaries and competitors are racing to weaponize these technologies and embed them in the global digital infrastructure. The United States must ensure that American values and interests are baked into the standards, protocols, and architectures that will govern the next century of connectivity.”
Washington is worried that rivals will bake their own rules, backdoors and standards into the world’s networks and wants the U.S. to set the technical and governance rules for the next wave of the internet.
Yet even in that context — “global digital infrastructure,” “digital finance and innovation” — the strategy never names:
- Bitcoin
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrency
- Stablecoins
- Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)
The crypto industry increasingly argues these are now security-relevant rails too. From sanctions compliance and cross-border payments to reserve diversification. But in this NSS, they’re either subsumed under vague “digital finance” language or left out entirely.
Trump 's crypto pivot
At the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, he told a packed arena he wanted to become the “crypto president,” pledged to establish a “strategic national bitcoin reserve,” and promised a presidential advisory council on crypto regulation.
He later hosted U.S. Bitcoin miners at Mar-a-Lago, praising them as helping stabilize the energy grid and declaring that he wanted “all remaining bitcoin to be mined in the U.S.” framing mining as both an energy and national security asset.
Meanwhile, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. helped launch American Bitcoin Corp, a Nasdaq-listed mining and treasury-management company that has explicitly talked about building a strategic Bitcoin reserve at the corporate level. By mid-2025, the firm reported holdings of around 2,400 BTC and described its strategy as mining, accumulating and holding Bitcoin over the long term.
Taken together, Trump-world has repeatedly framed Bitcoin as:
- A strategic asset, akin to digital gold
- A tool for U.S. energy “dominance” via mining
- A competitive pillar in the global financial system
However... there could be few reasons
There are several possible readings.
The omission is deliberate caution, keeping Bitcoin and crypto in the economic and regulatory bucket (Treasury, SEC, CFTC) rather than formally elevating them to a national security issue.
Or the White House may simply prefer (“digital finance”) that can later cover both traditional fintech and tokenized systems without committing to specifics.
