‘Not The Plan For Us’: UK Treasury Minister Rejects U.S.-Style National Crypto Reserve

Since United States President Donald Trump unveiled plans to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, there have been speculations about whether other nations will embrace the strategy. Notably, the UK’s Economic Secretary for the Treasury has clarified that the United Kingdom will not follow the U.S. in setting up a national Bitcoin reserve. UK Rules Out National Crypto Reserve Plans Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit in London, Emma Reynolds MP said that stockpiling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is “not the plan for us.” “We don’t think that’s appropriate for our market,” Reynolds said. “We understand that’s what the U.S. is going for, but that’s not the plan for us,” she asserted. Even though a UK digital asset reserve is off the cards, she stressed the need for collaboration between the nations on crypto regulation. She cited recent meetings between the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and the creation of a “senior official level working group between the UK and the U.S. According to Reynolds, the regulatory forum will meet in June to discuss cooperation on digital assets. She believes this cooperation is crucial given the significant change from the previous Biden administration in its outlook on crypto under the Trump regime. While Reynolds shot down the idea of a UK national crypto reserve, the country is considering issuing sovereign debt using distributed ledger technologies. The Economic Secretary revealed that the procurement process has already started, and the government hopes to appoint a supplier by late summer 2025. The UK Is Focused On Aligning With Traditional Financial Regulations Meanwhile, many are looking at the U.K. to take steps forward to regulate the crypto market as other major nations like the European Union establish their crypto regimes and the U.S. forges ahead with pro-crypto Trump. But Reynolds revealed that the U.K. is not planning to mirror the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. “We decided not to go down that particular road,” she noted, indicating that the UK’s legislative tradition is “much less like that of the EU in that we are looking at outcomes.” Moreover, she acknowledged that some aspects of crypto, especially Bitcoin’s fully decentralized nature, are beyond governments’ regulatory ability.